A call for standardised age-disaggregated health data.

The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda calls for health data to be disaggregated by age. However, age groupings used to record and report health data vary greatly, hindering the harmonisation, comparability, and usefulness of these data, within and across countries. This variability has become especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was an urgent need for rapid cross-country analyses of epidemiological patterns by age to direct public health action, but such analyses were limited by the lack of standard age categories. In this Personal View, we propose a recommended set of age groupings to address this issue. These groupings are informed by age-specific patterns of morbidity, mortality, and health risks, and by opportunities for prevention and disease intervention. We recommend age groupings of 5 years for all health data, except for those younger than 5 years, during which time there are rapid biological and physiological changes that justify a finer disaggregation. Although the focus of this Personal View is on the standardisation of the analysis and display of age groups, we also outline the challenges faced in collecting data on exact age, especially for health facilities and surveillance data. The proposed age disaggregation should facilitate targeted, age-specific policies and actions for health care and disease management

Dosimetric Evaluation and Verification of External Beam 3-D Treatment Plans in Humanoid Phantom Using Thermoluminescent Dosimeters (TLDs)

Dosimetric Evaluation & Verification Of External Beam 3-D Treatment Plans In Humanoid Phantom have been carried out. In this study male anthromorphic phantom, model no.702 D, manufactured by Atom Ltd has been used. The plan was delivered to phantom and TLD- 100 was placed in cavities to evaluate and verify the dose delivered by implementing 3D treatment plans. TLD 100 was calibrated using SIEMENS PRIMUS PLUS Linear Accelerator with calibrated 6 MV X ray beam. We chose phantom skull, abdomen and pelvis region for making treatment plans and then doses by treatment plans have been verified by TLDs. 4%, 3.5% and 3% variation in the results was found for skull, pelvis and abdomen region respectively which is within the safe limit of accuracy i-e from 3% to 5 %. Before working with TLDs, it has also been found that thermoluminescent dosimeters were showing the linear response and results are reproducible for the dose range from 50 cGy to 200 cGy. This study has been performed at Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (KIRAN) during the year 2010-2011

Dosimetric Evaluation and Verification of External Beam 3-D Treatment Plans in Humanoid Phantom Using Thermoluminescent Dosimeters (TLDs)

Dosimetric Evaluation & Verification Of External Beam 3-D Treatment Plans In Humanoid Phantom have been carried out. In this study male anthromorphic phantom, model no.702 D, manufactured by Atom Ltd has been used. The plan was delivered to phantom and TLD- 100 was placed in cavities to evaluate and verify the dose delivered by implementing 3D treatment plans. TLD 100 was calibrated using SIEMENS PRIMUS PLUS Linear Accelerator with calibrated 6 MV X ray beam. We chose phantom skull, abdomen and pelvis region for making treatment plans and then doses by treatment plans have been verified by TLDs. 4%, 3.5% and 3% variation in the results was found for skull, pelvis and abdomen region respectively which is within the safe limit of accuracy i-e from 3% to 5 %. Before working with TLDs, it has also been found that thermoluminescent dosimeters were showing the linear response and results are reproducible for the dose range from 50 cGy to 200 cGy. This study has been performed at Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (KIRAN) during the year 2010-2011