Medical exposure assessment: the global approach of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) was established in 1955 to systematically collect, evaluate, publish and share data on the global levels and effects of ionizing radiation from natural and artificial sources. Regular surveys have been conducted to determinate the frequencies of medical radiological procedure, the number of equipment and staffing and the level of global exposure using the health care level (HCL) extrapolation model. UNSCEAR surveys revealed a range of issues relating to participation, survey process, data quality and analysis. Thus, UNSCEAR developed an improvement strategy to address the existing deficiencies in data quality and collection. The major element of this strategy is the introduction of an on-line platform to facilitate the data collection and archiving process. It is anticipated that the number of countries participating in UNSCEAR's surveys will increase in the future, particularly from HCL II-IV countries.