The danger of radiation exposure is a key topic in several fields of healthcare, but endoscopists rarely receive adequate education on the risks and appropriate protocols around fluoroscopy used in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and other GI procedures, said Meera Bhardwaj, MD.
In this video, Dr. Bhardwaj, an interventional endoscopist and assistant professor of medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital, in New York, discusses commonsense steps endoscopy staff can take to reduce radiation exposure using the ALARA—“as low as reasonably achievable”—principle, the pillars of which are time, distance and shielding.
“My hope is that we can share this with other fellowship programs and demonstrate an improvement in both their knowledge as well as their comfort in those cases,” she said. “I hope this can be something more standardized across training programs in the future.”
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—GEN Staff