A COMPUTER program that aims to make radiography imaging safer for patients by minimising their radiation exposure is expected to be tested in a clinical environment next year.
Developed by researchers at Western Australia's Curtin University of Technology, the program will help hospitals monitor the amount of radiation patients are exposed to in Computed Radiography treatment.
While CR, which uses X-ray technology to create computer images of the patient, is considered a highly effective way to create internal body images, it requires the use of precise levels of radiation.
Curtise Ng, of Curtin's Department of Imaging and Applied Physics, said there were concerns too much radiation was used to get an acceptable image, which could harm the health of patients.
"Radiographers or medical imaging technologists could use a higher radiation dose than normal because it can guarantee they can get the image outcome," Dr Ng said.
The online automatic CR dose data mining program, which was developed using freeware and existing software, used images stored in the Picture Archiving and Communication System servers of CR machines to monitor dose creep.
"I have developed a program that is ... directly linked to the computer image archive, and once the user launches the program it can get the images automatically from the archive and then do the analysis," Dr Ng said.
The program could replace human intervention by reading the dose information automatically from the computer image, he said.
Dr Ng said the program could solve the dose creep problem.
The technology was expected to be trialled in a clinical environment from early next year.
The program, which could be used with machines developed by different manufacturers, had attracted interest from a Korean manufacturer and other researchers.
"My plan is to expand the capability of the program, not only looking at the CR examination. The next step would be looking at direct digital radiography, and then in the future apply it to computed tomography," Dr Ng said.