The value which research brings to health and wellbeing is unquestioned. Without it, progress in diagnosis, treatment and care would probably cease and the service offered to patients and clients would deteriorate. Engaging student radiographers, and radiographers who are early in their careers, with the research agenda is important as it is this group of people particularly who could go on to make meaningful career-long contributions to the radiographic knowledge base and clinical practice advancements. The radiography profession continues to suffer from a lack of engagement in research and because of this, in 2012, a multi-national collaboration was established to create a residential summer school in order to provide a real research experience to inspire participants to value research and/or carry out research as part of their career. The summer school is called OPTIMAX and it is primarily aimed at BSc student radiographers. MSc students and newly qualified radiographers are welcome to participate; also, university tutors are also welcome too as they can gain greatly from it. For doctoral (e.g. PhD) qualified radiographers, attending OPTIMAX could be a good steppingstone in a post-doctoral career as it offers a good experience in team working in research. It is worth remembering that a doctoral qualification is solely intended to develop research abilities and the research career should start on the day the doctoral qualification is acquired. Sadly, for many individuals within radiography, the day the doctoral qualification is attained is the day research stops. OPTIMAX therefore offers an opportunity to a wide range of people, to inspire and help them gain skills, confidence and insight into how research can be conducted in teams and disseminated for the benefit of others.
The value which research brings to health and wellbeing is unquestioned. Without it, progress in diagnosis, treatment and care would probably cease and the service offered to patients and clients would deteriorate. Engaging student radiographers, and radiographers who are early in their careers, with the research agenda is important as it is this group of people particularly who could go on to make meaningful career-long contributions to the radiographic knowledge base and clinical practice advancements. The radiography profession continues to suffer from a lack of engagement in research and because of this, in 2012, a multi-national collaboration was established to create a residential summer school in order to provide a real research experience to inspire participants to value research and/or carry out research as part of their career. The summer school is called OPTIMAX and it is primarily aimed at BSc student radiographers. MSc students and newly qualified radiographers are welcome to participate; also, university tutors are also welcome too as they can gain greatly from it. For doctoral (e.g. PhD) qualified radiographers, attending OPTIMAX could be a good steppingstone in a post-doctoral career as it offers a good experience in team working in research. It is worth remembering that a doctoral qualification is solely intended to develop research abilities and the research career should start on the day the doctoral qualification is acquired. Sadly, for many individuals within radiography, the day the doctoral qualification is attained is the day research stops. OPTIMAX therefore offers an opportunity to a wide range of people, to inspire and help them gain skills, confidence and insight into how research can be conducted in teams and disseminated for the benefit of others.
INTRODUCTION: With the introduction of digital radiography, the feedback between image quality and over-exposure has been partly lost which in some cases has led to a steady increase in dose. Over the years the introduction of exposure index (EI) has been used to resolve this phenomenon referred to as 'dose creep'. Even though EI is often vendor specific it is always a related of the radiation exposure to the detector. Due to the nature of this relationship EI can also be used as a patient dose indicator, however this is not widely investigated in literature.METHODS: A total of 420 dose-area-product (DAP) and EI measurements were taken whilst varying kVp, mAs and body habitus on two different anthropomorphic phantoms (pelvis and chest). Using linear regression, the correlation between EI and DAP were examined. Additionally, two separate region of interest (ROI) placements/per phantom where examined in order to research any effect on EI.RESULTS: When dividing the data into subsets, a strong correlation between EI and DAP was shown with all R-squared values > 0.987. Comparison between the ROI placements showed a significant difference between EIs for both placements.CONCLUSION: This research shows a clear relationship between EI and radiation dose which is dependent on a wide variety of factors such as ROI placement, body habitus. In addition, pathology and manufacturer specific EI's are likely to be of influence as well.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The combination of DAP and EI might be used as a patient dose indicator. However, the influencing factors as mentioned in the conclusion should be considered and examined before implementation.
