Virtual CE Course – The U.S. Million Person Study of Low-Level and Low-Dose-Rate Health Effects: Status and Innovations

Presented by Lawrence T. Dauer

The study of populations that received low dose and low-dose rate exposure is of immeasurable value in understanding the possible range of health effects from prolonged exposures to radiation. The Million Person Study of Low-Level and Low-Dose-Rate Health Effects (MPS) is designed to address the major unanswered question in radiation risk understanding: What is the level of health effects when exposure is gradual over time rather than delivered acutely. Over a million healthy American workers and veterans are being studied to evaluate cancer and non-cancer mortality and morbidity following low-LET and high-LET exposure, rare cancers, intakes of radionuclides, and differences in risks between women and men. An overview of the scientific approach for the MPS and its relevance to a low-dose, low dose-rate research program in the U.S., as well as to radiation protection guidance, will be presented. Discussion will include the purpose for studying one million U.S. radiation workers and veterans, the general methodology, status, selected results (including dose response analyses for risks of cancer, circulatory disease, and Parkinson’s disease), planned expansion, and vision. The MPS provides examples of innovation in many areas of epidemiological study, including unique vital status and tracing activities, new science for radiation dosimetry methodologies, evaluation of cognition-related outcomes, and evaluation of multiple stressor outcomes, in addition to cancer and non-cancer impacts, harmonization across cohorts, use of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services beneficiary data files, big data extraction and mining, and multi-model evaluations.

This 2-hour ABHP approved CE Course will be hosted on Zoom and is eligible for 4 CECs.