Objective To analyze the basic information of radiation diagnosis and treatment in Tianjin's medical and health institutions and the frequency of medical radiation exposure from 2023 to 2024, strengthen radiation protection management of medical and health institutions, and provide decision-making advice for optimizing the allocation of medical and health resources.

Methods Based on the data from a professional medical imaging management system of medical and health institutions, a questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the configuration of radiation diagnosis and treatment equipment and the number of diagnosis and treatment person-time in medical and health institutions in Tianjin from 2023 to 2024, excluding military hospitals, armed police medical institutions, and dental clinics. The ratios of various types of radiation diagnosis and treatment equipment and the number of diagnosis and treatment person-time to the permanent resident population of Tianjin at the end of 2023 were calculated, to evaluate the usage frequency of different radiation diagnosis and treatment equipment.

Results  As of September 2024, Tianjin had a total of 2,217 radiation diagnosis and treatment equipment, comprising 839 in tertiary hospitals, 367 in secondary hospitals, 634 in primary hospitals, and 377 in ungraded hospitals. The average was 1.625 equipment per 10,000 people. The number of radiation workers was 6,909, comprising 4,644 in tertiary hospitals, 828 in secondary hospitals, 968 in primary hospitals, and 469 in ungraded hospitals, yielding an average of 3.12 workers per equipment. From 2023 to 2024, the total number of radiation diagnosis and treatment medical exposures in Tianjin reached 12,744,620 person-time. Among these, tertiary hospitals accounted for the largest proportion with 7,822,156 person-time (61.38%), followed by secondary hospitals with 1,961,406 person-time (15.39%), ungraded hospitals with 1,665,265 person-time (13.07%), and primary hospitals with 1,295,793 person-time (10.17%). The annual frequency of radiation diagnosis and treatment examinations was 934.36 person-time per 1,000 people, with X-ray imaging (46.26%, 432.26 person-time per 1,000 people) and CT examination (42.43%, 396.45 person-time per 1,000 people) being the primary types of examinations.

Conclusions The allocation of radiological diagnosis and treatment resources in Tianjin exhibits a relatively obvious clustering phenomenon. The number of radiation diagnosis and treatment examinations in Tianjin showing a rapid growth trend. Moreover, the phenomenon of patients flowing to tertiary hospitals has become pronounced. Future efforts should enhance radiation protection in medical exposure, especially to strengthen the legitimacy judgment of radiation diagnosis and treatment, to effectively control the radiation dose level.