(*) Summary: The radioactivity installations in a hospital are not restricted to a unique specific area. This is particularly relevant in the diagnosis area of the Nuclear Medicine Services, where the patients themselves become a potential “radioactive source”. The situation is dangerous when the patients injected with radiopharmaceuticals use the same waiting room, usually a restricted area. Moreover, if there are accompanying people this causes a real health problem. From our experience in Cuba our work attempts to explain the dose of radiation received by people accompanying patients. Since most patients need an accompanying person during the treatment this hazard involves a very large number of people. This question concerns patients including children, senior persons and even patients with serious illnesses, mental conditions or handicaps. Furthermore, ambulatory patients can return after the examination to their homes or offices using public transport. This increases the number of people exposed to radiation. In addition, in hospital the transmission of radiation can affect other patients. The bigger risk concerns people accompanying cancer patients. We will emphasize the need for applying dose restrictions in the Nuclear Medicine Service and the need for setting standards and methodologies for patients after leaving the hospital, thus reducing the radiation dose to which the general public is exposed.
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(**) Biodata: Marlenin Díaz Barreto, MSc, is a Regular Associate of the ICTP in the Applied Physics Scientific Section, Medical Physics. She is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Technologies and Applied Sciences in Havana. In addition she works as a medical physicist in the Cuban Health Ministry. Currently she works to guarantee the safety and effectiveness of medical devices used by the National Health System, as well as for protecting patients and the general public. Amongst her duties she works towards improving the National Program of Quality Control of Nuclear Medicine Instrumentation, in order to promote the implementation of Quality Assurance Programs in Nuclear Medicine Departments in Cuba. In the last 5 years she has been the author of 10 publications and conference proceedings.