RE: Occupational vs. Medical Exposures

[Douglas Simpkin <dsimpkin@execpc.com>]

Sandy Perle wrote:
>With respect to nuclear medicine procedures, the NRC has interjected 
>themselves into regulating the dose received by the patient, due to 
>the procedure performed.

This is not correct. NRC does not regulate the dose received by the patient
(or the activity administered). They regulate how much activity can be in a
patient before he's sent home, but they do not prescribe to the physician
how much activity is to be injected for a particular type of study.

David Adcock wrote:
>Physicists seem awfully pushy in controlling occupational 
>exposure to be so easy on the unnecessary medical exposure.

Would Dr. Adcock want me, as a diagnostic medical physicist, to deem which
of his prescribed medical exposures were unnecessary?

This whole topic is a bit ridiculous. The regulatory folks and the
diagnostic physicists should never be in the position of telling physicians
how to practice medicine.


Douglas J. Simpkin, Ph.D., DABR
St. Luke's Medical Center
2900 West Oklahoma Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53215
phone: (414)649-6457
fax: (414)649-5061
email: dsimpkin@execpc.com
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