2014 Outstanding Leadership Award: Mohan Doss

Dr. Mohan Doss received BSc degree in Physics from Madras University, India and his MSc degree in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. He obtained MS and PhD degrees in Physics from Carnegie-Mellon University. After 10 years of post-doctoral research in USA and Canada, he became a Medical Physicist in the Nuclear Medicine Department of Regina General Hospital in Regina, Canada. In 2001, he joined Diagnostic Imaging Department of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia where he is presently an Associate Professor. Dr. Doss has board certification from the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine.

Dr. Doss began a detailed study of the health effects of low dose radiation (LDR) to investigate the claims of increased cancer risk from diagnostic imaging based on the linear no-threshold (LNT) model. He noted that although considerable amount of evidence exists for the disease preventive effect of LDR, the atomic bomb survivor data had been used to raise LDR carcinogenic concerns in many publications. Dr. Doss’s analysis of the latest update to the atomic bomb survivor data showed that these data no longer support the LNT model but are consistent with a threshold or hormesis model. The LNT model however continues to be used for radiation safety worldwide.

There is increasing realization in the scientific community of the tremendous harm from the use of the LNT model, e.g. casualties due to prolonged evacuations in Fukushima, missed diagnoses in patients due to LDR concerns, and barriers to study of LDR for disease prevention in spite of considerable evidence in pre-clinical studies. Dr. Doss is pleased to be a member of a group called Scientists for Accurate Radiation Information (SARI) that has been formed recently to attempt to reduce such harm by dispelling misinformation and encouraging a change in the radiation safety paradigm.

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