VIENNA, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in collaboration with other international organizations, is developing a series of measures aimed at strengthening patient protection against overuse of high-tech scanning procedures with increased radiation levels, the IAEA press release said on Wednesday.

    The focus of recent efforts is a Smart Card project, to log how much radiation a person receives in the course of a lifetime, as procedures like computed tomography (CT) scans delivering higher doses of radiation to patients, which can increase a patient's lifetime risk of cancer.

    A meeting was held from April 27 to 29, 2009 in Vienna to launch the Smart Card scheme. The IAEA's activities in radiation protection also include training, knowledge sharing and capacity building in the medical use of radiation.

    The aim of the conference is to identify the factors that contribute to unnecessary radiation dose to patients and provide guidelines so that doctors will carefully weigh the benefits against the potential risks before making their decisions on medically relevant data.