ALARA: AS LOW AS REASONABLY ACHIEVABLE.
Where radiation safety moves from principle to action.
Our mission is to advance radiation safety in medical imaging through open, unbiased education, collaboration, and innovation.
Modern medical imaging has driven major advances in diagnosis, surgical guidance, and patient outcomes. In pursuing the mission to save lives and do no harm, that commitment must extend to caregivers as well. Healthcare professionals face lifelong, cumulative risks—from elevated cancer incidence and lens injury to musculoskeletal strain. Radiation safety awareness helps the people closest to the beam go home as healthy as the patients they serve.
The Importance of Radiation Safety Awareness
Ionizing radiation is invisible and cumulative; the people closest to the beam—physicians, nurses, techs, pay a heavy price for the safety of others. With the simple push of a button, healthcare professionals—physicians, nurses, techs and so many more take on a silent but deadly burden. We often see statistics and disconnect from the reality they represent. Those statistics are fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters—esteemed colleagues and friends who are paying a real cost for care. At ALARA, Safety must rival the cure.
Over 40% of medical personnel skip dosimeter use or thyroid collar protection.
Nearly 1 in 4 radiology staff have thyroid nodules. Signals the effects from long-term, low-dose exposure.
Trainees underestimate exposure by up to 70%. Misperception undermines safety planning
Interventionalists show 2x the normal DNA damage. Cellular impacts accumulate.
A multi-layered approach to achieving ALARA
Radiation safety is never achieved through a single tool, tactic, or policy—it requires a coordinated system of protections and cultural commitments that work together. At ALARA, we define this system through four foundational pillars that capture the full scope of protection: the products and services that provide shielding and monitoring, the education and training that build expertise, the protocols and workflow that embed safety into daily practice, and the culture and compliance that sustain accountability over time. This framework goes beyond shielding—it is about strategy, awareness, and responsibility, creating a comprehensive portfolio of safeguards that keep exposure as low as reasonably achievable and protect those who protect patients.
Products and Services
All protective devices, garments, shielding systems, monitoring tools, and support services that form the physical and technological backbone of radiation safety.
Education and Training
Formal instruction, ongoing staff education, and professional development that ensure every caregiver understands risks, protective strategies, and best practices.
Protocols and Workflow
Standardized imaging protocols, dose-optimization techniques, room setup, and team coordination that embed safety into daily practice.
Culture and Compliance
The organizational mindset and systems that make safety sustainable: awareness, shared responsibility, monitoring, auditing, and alignment with regulatory standards.
Many Voices. One Mission.
A special thanks to our executive contributors.
We stand at the intersection of industry and healthcare, promoting safety through education, not exclusion. We connect clinicians with innovators, institutions with insights, and products with the professionals who rely on them. Because in radiation safety, the goal is clear: as low as reasonably achievable — for everyone.
