Author: Wesley E. Bolch, Lotem Buchbinder Shadur, Natalia Estefania Carrasco-Rojas, Chansoo Choi, Robert Joseph Dawson, Shaheen Dewji, John Francis, Emmanual Mate-Kole, Wyatt Smither, Yitian Wang 👨🔬
Affiliation: Georgia Tech, University of Florida, Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics Programs, Georgia Institute of Technology 🌍
Purpose: Develop a software application capable of assessing the radiation contamination of military service members and members of the general public for fast, on-site radiological triage. The software design allows use on multiple platforms and may be extended to different contexts.
Methods: Data were produced quantifying several parameters used to calculate dose risks from radionuclide inhalation. To produce this data, 109 realistic tetrahedral mesh-based phantoms were developed. The phantoms were designed to represent military-stature adults of different heights and weights. Monte Carlo simulations were performed on the phantoms to calculate radionuclide S values for an array of source and target combinations. These S values were then used to create committed effective and organ absorbed dose coefficients for different time-integration periods since exposure. Several detector efficiencies were computed allowing for a variety of compatible detector products. All the data generated were organized and packaged in a cross-platform software application with a responsive graphical user interface.
Results: Early versions of the application have been successfully tested and implemented on three different platforms including a serverless website and two desktop operating systems. This application allows users to specify an exposed individual’s height, weight, and date of exposure, as well as the screening detector and detector distance. Using calculations of all these data the application produces values of 30-day committed absorbed dose for lungs, red bone marrow, thyroid, and the small intestine as well as 50-year committed effective dose.
Conclusion: The development and successful testing of this software application demonstrates its potential as a valuable tool for rapidly assessing radiation contamination in field. Its cross-platform compatibility and responsive user interface ensure broad accessibility. Future efforts will focus on extending the number of available phantoms to include the adult and pediatric civilian population, supporting different detector types, and expanding the number of compatible platforms.