The competence network for dose reduction in computed tomographic imaging, in which the University of Oldenburg is involved, is starting its work. Other members of the network, which is coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Health in Munich, are the German Cancer Research Centre, the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim, the Technical University of Munich and Charité Berlin, as well as the Federal Office for Radiation Protection. The project will be funded for three years with a total of around three million euros.

In Germany, CT scans account for only a fraction of X-ray examinations, but cause around 50 per cent of the population's exposure to radiation in civilisation. Recent studies estimate up to 2,000 additional cases of cancer per year in Germany due to X-ray diagnostics. Not everyone is x-rayed every year, but the radiation dose to which patients are exposed during CT scans is many times that of a normal x-ray. This is where the joint project comes in: The research work aims to reduce the radiation exposure of the population through technical improvements in computed tomography and to develop suitable imaging techniques for characterising tumour biology as well as the bio-distribution, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of substances that modify the effect of radiation and to evaluate these in pre-clinical studies.

The Oldenburg working group, jointly supported by the University and Pius Hospital and under the scientific leadership of medical physicist Prof. Dr Björn Poppe, has taken on the task of developing theoretical models and calculation programmes for the individual determination of the physical radiation dose distribution of patients. For the first time, methods and models are being used that the group helped to develop for radiotherapy, among other things, and which are now to be adapted for use in radiology. The practical trials will then be carried out by clinical co-operation partners such as the Pius Hospital in Oldenburg, the University Hospital in Heidelberg and the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich.

The competence network for dose reduction in computed tomography imaging emerged from a competence initiative of the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It was initiated in 2007 to give new impetus to the research expertise in the field of radiation research that had been lost in Germany.
The competence network was selected for funding from over 200 proposals.