Overview

Radiation protection of patients and staff during diagnostic imaging procedures is an important aspect of the medical physics profession. Despite the large number of reports and guidelines published by specialized radiation protection organizations and professional societies, there are still some controversies regarding the utility and efficiency of some practices in terms of reducing the dose to patients during typical radiological imaging procedures. It is the role of medical physicists providing physics support to diagnostic imaging facilities and involved in clinical routine activities to debate important issues related to the design of optimal dose reduction strategies with the aims of protecting the patient from unnecessary exposure to ionizing radiation and limiting medically necessary exposure to the minimum required to answer the specific clinical question at hand. Among many other issues, the role of gonadal shielding to protect the patient's reproductive organs in radiology has long been debated without reaching a consensus, resulting in contradictory guidelines on their relevance in clinical practice. Regardless of the contradictions in the scientific literature on the importance of gonadal shielding, one might argue that the patients feel that gonadal shielding is often employed to protect them from ionizing radiation and that they are put at an increased risk in its absence. This is the topic addressed in this month's Point/Counterpoint debate.

Arguing for the proposition is Sarah McKenney, PhD. Dr. McKenney is a Medical Physicist within the Department of Health Physics and an Associate Professor within the Department of Radiology at the University of California, Davis (UCD) Medical Center in Sacramento, CA. Dr. McKenney received a BS and BA in Physics and Studio Art from the University of Maryland, College Park then worked several years at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research. She obtained her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from UCD and completed her medical physics residency at Henry Ford Hospital. Before joining UCD as a medical physicist, Dr. McKenney served at Children's National in Washington DC. Dr. McKenney is Vice‐Chair of the Pediatric Imaging Subcommittee within the AAPM and she is a steering committee member of Image Gently. Her research interests include imaging quality and dose optimization, particularly for pediatric populations.

Arguing against the Proposition is Eric Gingold, PhD. Dr. Gingold is Associate Professor of Radiology at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He received his PhD under Dr Bruce Hasegawa of the UC Berkeley/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering and then completed a medical physics postdoctoral fellowship/residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he specialized in mammography spectral simulation and dosimetry. Dr. Gingold developed exam‐specific image processing algorithms for digital radiography at Sterling Diagnostic Imaging and Hologic before joining the faculty at Thomas Jefferson University in 2004 as chief of diagnostic medical physics. He is a fellow of the AAPM and is the current chair of the AAPM's Imaging Physics Committee.