Report from the workshop and closing meeting of the IAEA TC POL9027 project
On December 2-4, 2024, the workshop entitled “Quantification in hybrid imaging” was held together with the closing meeting of the IAEA TC POL9027 project.The aim of the POL9027 project was to provide merit support in the field of quality assurance / control (QA / QC) for nuclear medicine departments using PET, to provide these departments with specialized measuring equipment, to ensure appropriate practical training and to promote good practices in the field of patient and staff safety.
As part of the project:
- 36 phantoms for quality control of medical devices were purchased for the units participating in the project;
- the implementation of the EARL accreditation of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) for 15 centres involved in the project was financed;
- workshops and training on conducting QA / QC tests and SUV standardization in PET, workshops on individual treatment planning in nuclear medicine, training on QA / QC tests in PET scanners were organized;
- support was obtained from the IAEA for project participants in the form of financing participation in international congresses and conferences, including the EANM’24 Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine and the 5th European Congress of Medical Physics (ECMP);
- national survey on patient doses in PET examinations was conducted for the first time, addressed to nuclear medicine centres.
During the two days of the workshop, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency and specialists from national centres gave presentations. Elena De Ponti (Fondazione IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori, Monza, Italy) and John Dickson (Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University College London, Great Britain), present in Łódź, summarized the lectures that had been previously made available on the KCORwOZ YouTube channel: “Hybrid Technology PET/CT”; “Challenges and Opportunities in Hybrid Imaging”; “The Role of Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Hybrid Imaging Quantification” (Elena de Ponti); “Concepts of Quantification”; “Hybrid Technology SPECT/CT”; “Hybrid Technology PET/MRI” (John Dickson). On the second day of the workshop, experts from Poland gave their presentations: Leszek Królicki (Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Clinical Center, Medical University of Warsaw) – “Clinical application of hybrid imaging”; Małgorzata Mojsak and Anna Amelian (Independent Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Medical University of Białystok) – “PET/MR – a tool for quantitative multiparametric imaging”; Monika Tulik (Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Clinical Center, Medical University of Warsaw) – “Targeted alpha-particle therapy: qualitative and quantitative post-therapeutic imaging”; Hanna Piwowarska-Bilska (Department of Nuclear Medicine, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin) – “First key steps in implementing internal dosimetry for patients in the clinical nuclear medicine department”.
The closing meeting of the IAEA TC POL9027 project “Enhancing the Capabilities of Positron Emission Tomography Departments to Provide High Quality Imaging and Therapies to Promote Safety Culture”, implemented within the framework of technical cooperation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA TC), was opened by Dariusz Kluszczyński – Director of the National Centre for Radiation Protection in Healthcare. Then he read a letter addressed to the participants of the event from Wojciech Konieczny, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Health. The following speakers took the floor during the opening: Meng Li, Programme Management Officer, Division for Europe, Department of Technical Cooperation IAEA; Iga Pocztarek-Tofil, Director of the Policy and International Cooperation Bureau, National Atomic Energy Agency (PAA); Monika Zakrzewska, Head of the Radiation Hygiene Department, Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS); Leszek Królicki, National Consultant for nuclear medicine. During the meeting, Dariusz Kluszczyński discussed the POL9027 project and the national survey on patient doses in PET examinations. The program also included time for discussion, making the meeting a platform for the exchange of experiences between participants of the IAEA TC POL9027 project.
Both the workshops and the meeting were held in a hybrid form: on-site in Lodz and online on a dedicated conference platform with the possibility of interactive participation. Additionally, the event could be followed on the Internet, on the website www.rpop.pl, in two language versions: Polish and English.
Nearly 150 people took part in the three-day, free event promoting good practice in the field of patient safety exposed to ionising radiation. They included representatives of the Ministry of Health, the National Atomic Energy Agency, the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate, representatives of the State Sanitary Inspectorate, and above all medical physicists, electroradiologists, doctors, radiation protection inspectors from hospitals and other health care units in Poland. We would like to thank all Participants for such a large turnout!
