Does NRC require medical licensees to give patients information about their radioactivity following treatment?
If the projected radiation dose to another individual from exposure to the released patient could exceed a specified value, 1 millisievert (mSv) (100 millirem [mrem]), NRC regulations require licensees to provide instructions, including written instructions, to the patient or the patient’s family, to keep exposure to other individuals as low as possible. The Society of Nuclear Medicine has prepared a pamphlet that includes special instructions for patients to reduce exposure to others. Many licensees provide this pamphlet to their patients, and many institutions have developed their own set of precautions which they provide to the patients, or to the patients’ relatives, to minimize contamination and exposures to other individuals. NRC’s guidance documents also provide safety precautions to minimize exposure to others. See NUREG-1556, Vol. 9, Rev. 2, “Consolidated Guidance About Medical Use Licenses: Program-Specific Guidance About Medical Use Licenses,” Appendix U, which is available
