EMRADDOSE: Emergency Radiation Dose Assessment App

Response to emergencies is by its very nature characterised by urgency. During a nuclear or radiological emergency (NRE), radiation protection professionals may need to perform quick radiation dose estimations in order to inform medical management of affected individuals.

Methods and step-by-step algorithms for emergency dose estimation have been published and relevant sources are provided below (see references section). It is clear however, that even the implementation of simple algorithms, can be challenging in stressful emergency situations. In stress, the mere task of looking up the proper coefficients for dose calculations increases the probability for error. Access to needed information may also be hampered in case of emergency.

The Emergency Radiation Dose Assessment App (EmRadDose) aims to streamline the steps of typical dose calculations, needed to guide medical management of affected people, in case of NRE. EmRadDose was created as a stand-alone, off-line tool that may be installed on any Android device (most widely available mobile operating system). It includes information and detailed in-app guidance, needed for quick dose calculations. At the same time, the algorithm steps are clearly organised in order to reduce the probability of calculation errors. At the moment the app provides calculators for the following calculations:

  • Effective dose due to external irradiation (point source)
  • Committed effective dose due to inhalation of radionuclides
  • Committed effective dose due to radionuclide contaminated
    wounds

EmRadDose is an open source tool and it is provided free of charge under the “GNU General Public License v3.0“.

EmRadDose can be downloaded from Google Play Store at:

Get it on Google Play

Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.

Scientific Reviewers and Contributors

In alphabertical order:

  • Armin Ansari, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
  • John Damilakis, University of Crete, Greece
  • Mats Isaksson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
  • Fridtjof Nüsslin, Technical University of Munich, Germany
  • Steve Sugarman, Summit Exercises and Training, USA
  • Hugh Wilkins, Medical Physics and Radiation Protection Consultant, UK

Code Repository

EmRadDose is an open source tool. This means that EmRadDose may be modified and remixed freely by following the license terms. The code may be found at the following repository: https://github.com/tberris/EmRadDose.

EmRadDose: A Tool for Radiation Protection Professionals

It should be noted that EmRadDose is intended to be used by trained radiation protection experts, as it requires a good understanding of NREs. The app includes some of the most important dose calculators and also provides links to other resources and tools used for emergency dose assessments. The scientific sources/references are cited appropriately for easy verification of the methods used. The user is encouraged to explore all relevant references and tools mentioned in the app. provides full step by step guidance and proper explanations in every step. . include steps which can increase the probability of errors during the operational conditions of a nuclear or radiological emergency.

Disclaimer, Terms of Use, Data Usage and Privacy Policy

This mobile application provides a set of tools, used for quick external and internal dose assessment of affected individuals, in emergency situations. This application is offered free of charge and is intended for use by appropriately qualified radiation protection professionals. Results produced by the tools provided in this application should be always used in conjunction with sound professional judgement, taking into account the specific condition of every individual (or patient) involved. External and internal dose calculators are included. All methods used are based on scientific principles and published research that is properly cited in the application. Although information provided in this application has been carefully reviewed and comes from sources that are believed to be reliable, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made regarding accuracy, adequacy, completeness, legality, reliability or usefulness of any information. This disclaimer applies to both isolated and aggregate uses of the information. The information is provided on an “as is” basis. All warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the implied fitness for a particular purpose, freedom from contamination by computer viruses and non-infringement of proprietary rights are disclaimed. This dose estimation application has NOT been approved for clinical use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any other entity. Data usage and privacy policy: This application does not collect, save or transmit any kind of data or sensitive information to any entity. All information is locally and temporarily stored in the user’s device and is deleted when the user exits the relevant calculator screen or the application. This application does not require any special permissions and has no access to mobile device functionalities that could possibly compromise user privacy.

References

Deep learning for pneumonia detection on chest x-rays

Recent advances in technology have immensely increased available computing power and data storage capacity . At the same time, digitisation of previously analog aspects of business and life, has made vast amounts of data available for analysis. Every digital log entry can somehow be collected and analysed. This is the ideal breeding ground for machine learning!

(more…)

Virtual Computed Tomography Department

I have recently been experimenting with animation and gamification for education and training purposes. My efforts led to the creation of a few simple videos and minigames, relevant to projects and themes I have worked on in the past. A video description of an NRE reception centre and a simple minigame with the same theme have been previously published on this website.

(more…)

Virtual Emergency Reception Centre

In case a nuclear or radiological emergency (NRE) situation arises, authorities set up appropriate emergency reception centres near the scene of the incident. The primary aim of such centres is to tend to the immediate medical needs of affected individuals. If time and situation allow, decontamination may also take place.

(more…)

Why do we need the scientific method?

In order to appreciate the value of the scientific method we need to first understand how much ambiguity is hidden in plain sight. Ambiguity pervades human life. It is everywhere. Almost all human interactions are affected by it. Imagine two people in an art gallery standing in front of a famous painting. After introspectively looking at it for a while, they have a brief conversation. They find out that they both agree the painting is heartwarming and soul soothing. Some kind of collegial spirit develops and makes them happy with the fact that they agree, before they part ways. One may wonder: Which soul were they talking about? The one jumping from body to body for eternity? The one that after death on earth resides to heaven for ever? Maybe the one that is a “spiritual” manifestation of physical processes in the brain? Does soul even exist? Who knows?

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Nuclear or radiological emergency reception centre

Nuclear or radiological emergencies (NREs) may result to injury and/or contamination of individuals. In case of NREs, responsible authorities respond by setting up an appropriate emergency reception centre near the scene of the incident.

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Humans are…

Crazy!!

That is what we are mostly. I have caught myself straying from well-thought (in my opinion at least) premeditated courses in my life, enough times so far. I can say with adequate certainty that it may happen to everyone. And it does. I have noticed…

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Modern Academia – or how to become an over-educated secretary

Disclaimer 1: The title of this article is purposefully exaggerated. This article has no intention to even imply that the work of a secretary is somehow inferior to the work of a scientist. It is not! I have done such work and I know that almost no secretary is as appreciated as she/he should be. Being a secretary involves a lot of strenuous work requiring a high degree of concentration and adaptability to keep up with constantly changing demands. I just think that a scientist and a secretary should be two equally valuable but also distinctly different jobs.

Disclaimer 2: The following arguments do not apply to every research group but I think they roughly correspond to the general trends observed in modern Academia. (more…)

The changing job market

I just read that in the US, college graduates have trouble landing jobs related to their education if at all [1]. This vividly reminds me of a TED talk given by Andrew McAfee about what future jobs will look like. The following is a video really worth watching!

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Perceptual adaptation

I am sure you have heard that the image of an object created on your eye’s retina is inverted (rotated by 180 degrees). The brain however has the ability to processes this information in such a way that makes you see things as they really are. This fact is remarkable and can give us a hint of how complex perception of reality is.

Fig.1. The image of real objects that is formed on our retina is inverted as compared to the original object. This happens due to the existence of the eye lens. However, we still do not perceive our environment as inverted.
Fig.1. The image of real objects that is formed on our retina is inverted as compared to the original object. This happens due to the existence of the eye lens. However, we still do not perceive our environment as inverted.

In the 1890s George M Stratton started out to test the theory of perceptual adaptation. (more…)