International action plan on the radiation protection of patients.

Realising that the major part of radiation protection efforts had been directed for over half a century at radiation protection of workers, and that there are major issues in relation to medical exposure, which contributes to over 95 % of the dose to the global population from man-made sources, with increasing individual patient doses in diagnostic examinations, unnecessary or inappropriate examinations and continued accidents in radiotherapy, the International Atomic Energy Agency established an International Action Plan (IAP) in 2002 in cooperation with international organisations and professional bodies. The achievements of the IAP, which include harmonised training material, guidance documents, a number of publications, a website on radiation protection of patients (http://rpop.iaea.org) and a series of actions in Member States that have shown positive impacts on patient protection, are summarised in this paper.