Introduction: When dealing with radioactively contaminated patients, medical staff often experience anxiety, even though their health is unlikely to be affected by radiation exposure. An application has been developed to simulate the exposure dose to medical personnel by inputting the contamination status of the patient. In addition, it was examined whether the application could be used for radiation exposure medical education to reduce the concerns of medical personnel about radiation. Methods: The application utilizes the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS), a radiation behavior code, to simulate the geometry of a supine patient and a medical staff member standing alongside. Simulations were conducted assuming contamination of the patient with various radionuclides. Using this data and FileMaker Pro, an iOS application was developed that allows for an intuitive calculation of exposure doses. This application has been incorporated into radiation emergency medical education. Results: Simulations revealed that even in scenarios involving radionuclide release from a criticality accident, such as significant deposition of radioactive iodine or cesium on the patient’s body surface, medical personnel are unlikely to receive doses exceeding 100 mSv. Furthermore, medical doctors, nurses, and radiological technologists who underwent radiation protection training demonstrated significantly reduced anxiety regarding radiation exposure both before and after the training. Conclusion: Providing medical personnel with an estimate of their potential exposure doses during the treatment of contaminated patients has proven effective in reducing anxiety. Continued basic research and education on low frequency events like radiation accidents remain crucial.
Tsujiguchi et al. (Sun,) studied this question.