The International Conference on Radiation Protection in Medicine: Achieving Change in Practice took place in Vienna between 11 and 15 December 2017, organized by the IAEA, co-sponsored by WHO and PAHO. It was convened as a follow-up of the first similar Conference held in Malaga, Spain (2001) and the second one held in Bonn, Germany (2012), which identified 10 priority actions to improve radiation protection in medicine (RPM) in the following decade known as the “Bonn Call for Action”.

Those 10 actions and related sub-actions were jointly published by the IAEA and WHO as the so-called “ Bonn Call for Action”, and were adopted by many stakeholders all over the world as a benchmark for the development of national action plans and regional campaigns.

This third conference gathered more than 550 participants from almost 100 countries and 16 cooperating organizations who reviewed the progress in the implementation of those actions and looked at how international organizations and other stakeholders can harmonize their actions for better impact. The main outcome of this Conference was the Bonn Call for Action Implementation Toolkit which will be further populated during 2018. The entire Conference was broadcasted as live video stream on  http://streaming.iaea.org/18675.

• strengthen the radiation protection of patients and health workers overall;
• attain the highest benefit with the least possible risk to all patients by the safe and appropriate use of ionizing radiation in medicine;
• aid the full integration of radiation protection into health care systems;
• help improve the benefit/risk-dialogue with patients and the public;
• enhance the safety and quality of radiological procedures in medicine.

The Bonn Call for Action highlights ten main actions that were identified as being essential for the strengthening of radiation protection in medicine over the next decade. The actions are not listed in order of importance.

Action 1: Enhance the implementation of the principle of justification
Action 2: Enhance the implementation of the principle of optimization of protection and safety
Action 3: Strengthen manufacturers’ role in contributing to the overall safety regime
Action 4: Strengthen radiation protection education and training of health professionals
Action 5: Shape and promote a strategic research agenda for radiation protection in medicine
Action 6: Increase availability of improved global information on medical exposures and occupational exposures in medicine
Action 7: Improve prevention of medical radiation incidents and accidents
Action 8: Strengthen radiation safety culture in health care
Action 9: Foster an improved radiation benefit-risk-dialogue
Action 10: Strengthen the implementation of safety requirements globally

The first ever meeting on radiation safety in medicine for Portuguese-speaking countries was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 10–12 September 2015. The workshop “Justification and optimization of radiological medical exposures” gathered stakeholders from Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome e Principe and Timor Leste, who shared experiences, identified problems and proposed solutions to implement the "Bonn Call for Action" . They approved a " Lisbon Commitment" (Compromisso de Lisboa) to join efforts for improving radiation safety in medicine in their countries.

The workshop was cosponsored by WHO in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), co-organized by the Portuguese Society of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (SPRMN), the Brazilian College of Radiology (CBR), the Lisbon Superior Technical Institute (IST), and the Coimbra School of Health Technologies (EsTeSC). A second workshop on “Justification and optimization of radiological medical exposures” for Portuguese-speaking countries was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 12-13 October 2018.

The first Iberoamerican Conference on radiation protection in medicine was held in Madrid, Spain, on 18-20 October 2016. The conference allowed to review advances in the implementation of the Bonn Call for Action, to identify problems and possible solutions, to promote good practices and to define progress indicators for those actions. The conference also served as an opportunity to exchange information and experience gained in recent years in relation to radiation protection in medicine, and to establish/strengthen ties between Ibero-American countries for cooperation in this field.

This Conference hosted by the Government of Spain through the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality (MSSSI) and the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) was co-organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA), the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) and the Iberoamerican Forum of Radiological and Nuclear Regulators (FORO).

Download the summary of the conference (J. Radiol. Prot. 38 (2018) 109–120)

Conference manuscripts: Spanish [pdf, 12.52Mb] I  English [pdf, 615kb] I  Portuguese [pdf, 639kb] 

Global actions:  IAEA /  UNSCEAR / ISR /  ISRRT /  IOMP /  IRPA /  WFPI /  FDI /  DITTA (MITA & COCIR)

Arabic countries: ArabSafe

Europe:  Eurosafe Imaging I European Commission (EC) I  HERCA

Latin America: LatinSAFE