• Title/Summary/Keyword: Medical Radiation

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Reliability and Validity of a Nationwide Survey (the Korean Radiation Workers Study)

  • Lee, Dalnim;Lim, Wan Young;Park, Soojin;Jin, Young Woo;Lee, Won Jin;Park, Sunhoo;Seo, Songwon
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.445-451
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    • 2021
  • Background: This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the self-administered questionnaire for Korean radiation workers. Methods: From May 24, 2016, to June 30, 2017, 20,608 participants completed the questionnaire, providing information on sociodemographics, lifestyle, work history and practices, medical radiation exposure, and medical history, which was linked to the National Dose Registry and the National Cancer Registry. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the responses of 20,608 workers, and reliability was evaluated using the responses of 3043 workers who responded to the survey twice. Results: Responses concerning demographic characteristics and lifestyle showed reliability with a moderate-to-high agreement (kappa: 0.43-0.99), whereas responses concerning occupation and medical radiation exposure had a wide range of agreement (kappa: 0.05-0.95), possibly owing to temporal variability during employment. Regarding validity, responses to the question about the first year of employment had an excellent agreement with the national registry (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.9); however, responses on cancer history had a wide range of agreement (kappa: 0.22-0.85). Conclusion: Although the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were not distinguished by demographic characteristics, they tended to be low among participants whose occupational radiation exposure was minimal. Overall, the information collected can be reliable for epidemiological studies; however, caution must be exercised when using information such as medical exposure and work practices, which are prone to temporal variability.

Status of Medical Exposure in Korea

  • Yoon, Sei-Chul;Kim, Il-Han;Kim, Sung-Hoon;Kim, Hyuck-Joo
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.35 no.3
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    • pp.96-98
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    • 2010
  • Medical use of radiation is increasing in recent times and its influence on the population creates almost the same amount of annual natural background radiation in industrialized countries in particular. Thus, medical radiation has become a social issue. This paper is a brief report on the status of medical exposure in Korea by way of consulting from the radiation-related medical societies in Korea.

The first private-hospital based proton therapy center in Korea; status of the Proton Therapy Center at Samsung Medical Center

  • Chung, Kwangzoo;Han, Youngyih;Kim, Jinsung;Ahn, Sung Hwan;Ju, Sang Gyu;Jung, Sang Hoon;Chung, Yoonsun;Cho, Sungkoo;Jo, Kwanghyun;Shin, Eun Hyuk;Hong, Chae-Seon;Shin, Jung Suk;Park, Seyjoon;Kim, Dae-Hyun;Kim, Hye Young;Lee, Boram;Shibagaki, Gantaro;Nonaka, Hideki;Sasai, Kenzo;Koyabu, Yukio;Choi, Changhoon;Huh, Seung Jae;Ahn, Yong Chan;Pyo, Hong Ryull;Lim, Do Hoon;Park, Hee Chul;Park, Won;Oh, Dong Ryul;Noh, Jae Myung;Yu, Jeong Il;Song, Sanghyuk;Lee, Ji Eun;Lee, Bomi;Choi, Doo Ho
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.33 no.4
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    • pp.337-343
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    • 2015
  • Purpose: The purpose of this report is to describe the proton therapy system at Samsung Medical Center (SMC-PTS) including the proton beam generator, irradiation system, patient positioning system, patient position verification system, respiratory gating system, and operating and safety control system, and review the current status of the SMC-PTS. Materials and Methods: The SMC-PTS has a cyclotron (230 MeV) and two treatment rooms: one treatment room is equipped with a multi-purpose nozzle and the other treatment room is equipped with a dedicated pencil beam scanning nozzle. The proton beam generator including the cyclotron and the energy selection system can lower the energy of protons down to 70 MeV from the maximum 230 MeV. Results: The multi-purpose nozzle can deliver both wobbling proton beam and active scanning proton beam, and a multi-leaf collimator has been installed in the downstream of the nozzle. The dedicated scanning nozzle can deliver active scanning proton beam with a helium gas filled pipe minimizing unnecessary interactions with the air in the beam path. The equipment was provided by Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd., RayStation from RaySearch Laboratories AB is the selected treatment planning system, and data management will be handled by the MOSAIQ system from Elekta AB. Conclusion: The SMC-PTS located in Seoul, Korea, is scheduled to begin treating cancer patients in 2015.