World Patient Safety Day 2025
Background
Ensuring safe care for patients is a fundamental priority, yet newborns and children remain especially vulnerable to patient safety risks. To bring attention to this critical issue, “Safe care for every newborn and every child” has been selected as the theme for World Patient Safety Day 2025. This is especially relevant when it comes to medical imaging and radiation safety where an understanding of benefits and risks is important.
Through the slogan “Patient safety from the start!”, WHO calls for concerted efforts for stronger measures to protect children from preventable harm in health care. Addressing this challenge requires comprehensive efforts across key patient safety areas, such as safe childbirth and postnatal care, medication safety, diagnostic safety, infection prevention and early recognition of clinical deterioration. The World Patient Safety Day 2025 aims to drive meaningful improvements and reaffirm every child's right to safe and quality care.
The Webinar aims to raise global awareness of safety risks in paediatric and newborn care in all health care settings, emphasizing the specific needs of children, families and caregivers when using radiation for diagnosis and treatment. It will bring together a number of Non-State Actors in official relations with WHO involved in radiation safety and medical imaging to discuss strategies for improving patient safety and radiation protection in paediatric and newborn care. A panel will discuss possible collaboration to strengthen radiation protection for paediatric and newborn care across different regions.
This Webinar is organized by WHO, kindly hosted by ISR with contributions from WFPI and the following NSAs in official relations with WHO: ICNIRP, ICRP, IOMP, ISR, ISRRT, WFNMB and WFUMB.
Agenda
- Welcoming remarks – Dr Rüdiger Krech, Director a.i., Environment, Climate Change One Health and Migration (WHO)
- World Patient Safety Day 2025 – Dr Ayda Taha, Technical Officer (WHO)
- DG recorded message
- WHO activities on radiation protection of children and newborns – Dr Ferid Shannoun, Scientist (WHO)
- Paediatric Imaging in newborns and children - why radiation protection matters from day one – Dr Elaine Kan, Radiologist and Dr Kevin Fung, Radiologist (WFPI)
- Panel discussion with Non-State Actors in official relations with WHO on:
- Their role in enhancing radiation protection for newborns and children; and
- Their collaboration through a multidisciplinary approach to strengthen radiation protection for paediatric and newborn care across different regions.
- Conclusion and closing remarks – Dr Emilie van Deventer, Unit Head (WHO)
Panelists: representatives from the following NSAs
- International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)
- International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)
- International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP)
- International Society of Radiology (ISR)
- International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists (ISRRT)
- World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology (WFNMB)
- World Federation of Pediatric Imaging (WFPI)
- World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB)
Speakers
Dr Elaine Kan is the Chief of Service of the Department of Radiology at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital and an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of University of Hong Kong. She graduated from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences of the University of Auckland, New Zealand and underwent training in Radiology in Hong Kong, USA and UK. She is a board member of the Asian-Oceanic Society of Paediatric Radiology, member of the AI taskforce of the European Society of Pediatric Radiology, MRI Safety Ambassador for the Asian Oceanian Society of Radiology. Dr Kan has special interests in neuroimaging, fetal neuroradiology, interventional radiology and radiation safety.
Dr Kevin Fung is a Consultant Radiologist in the Department of Radiology at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital and Honorary Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He graduated from the University of Hong Kong, Following his residency training in Radiology in Hong Kong, he completed a fellowship in Pediatric Interventional Radiology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. His clinical and research interests focus on paediatric interventional radiology, radiation safety, and oncologic imaging. Dr Fung is a member of the Asian Oceanian Society for Paediatric Radiology.
Dr Rüdiger Krech is the Director a.i. of the Department of Environment, Climate Change, Migration and One Health at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva since August 2025. From 2019-2025, he was the Director of Health Promotion. Prior to this, Dr Krech was Director of Universal Health Coverage and Health Systems and played a key role in placing this issue on the global health agenda. From 2009-2014, Dr Krech was the Director of Social Determinants of Health, Human Rights, Ethics and Equity. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Krech worked at the German Agency for International Cooperation (GiZ), where he developed and implemented the Social Protection agenda for Germany's development cooperation, and at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, where he was Head of Unit for Healthy Ageing.
Dr Ayda Taha is a Medical Doctor and a Public Health Specialist with a passion for improving patient safety. She is Technical Officer at the Patient Safety Flagship, Integrated Health Services Department at World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr Ferid Shannoun is a Scientist at the Radiation and Health Unit of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a medical physicist by training, holding two master’s degrees and a doctorate in Public Health from the University of Bielefeld, Germany.
Dr Emilie van Deventer is the Head of the Radiation and Health Unit at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The unit covers public health aspects of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation safety. She has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, USA.
Panelists
International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)
Dr Akimasa Hirata joined the ICNIRP Main Commission in May 2016 and serves as its Chair since July 2024. He received a B.E. and a Ph.D. in Communications Engineering from Osaka University, Suita, Japan. He is currently a Full Professor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the Director of the Center for Biomedical Physics and Information Technology at the Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan.
International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)
Dr Andrea Magistrelli is the Head of Palidoro Diagnostic Radiology Unit of Bambino Gesu’ Children’s Hospital, Italy. He is Vice Chair of ICRP’s Committee 3 (Radiation Protection in Medicine) and President of the Radiation Protection Committee of the Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology. His professional work is dedicated to radiation protection, quality and safety in medical imaging, with a particular focus on pediatric radiology.
International Organization for Medical Physics (IOMP)
Dr Magdalena Stoeva is Professor of Medical Physics at the Medical University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She is the Secretary General of IOMP. She is Editor-in-chief of the Health and Technology journal and an editor of the CRC Press Focus series on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. Her professional interests are in the field of professional development of medical physicists, including sustainability, educational strategies, workplace balance, promoting and supporting science for early career and the LMICs, distant education and training.
International Society of Radiology (ISR)
Dr Bibb Allen Jr., President of the ISR, is a diagnostic radiologist with the Birmingham Radiological Group and is in community practice at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a Past President and Board Chair of the American College of Radiology and served as the Chief Medical Officer of the ACR Data Science Institute from 2017 until 2024.
International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists (ISRRT)
Mr Edward HT Chan completed a basic radiography training in Hong Kong and Australia and holds two master's degrees in Psychology and Health Care. He holds the position of Director of Professional Practice at ISRRT. He works as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Diagnostic Sciences at the Hong Kong Metropolitan University.
World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology (WFNMB)
Dr Savvas Frangos is a Nuclear Medicine Specialist at the Nuclear Medicine Theragnostics Department of the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center in Nicosia, Cyprus. He is the President of the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology, as well as the President of the Cyprus Society of Nuclear Medicine.
World Federation of Paediatric Imaging (WFPI)
Dr Jennifer Nicholas is President of WFPI and the Chief of Pediatric Ultrasound at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. She has been involved in global health since her time as a medical student at Duke University School of Medicine when she traveled to Honduras as part of a semester-long global health course. She has been involved in training radiologists in Nicaragua, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Haiti, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. Her main areas of interest include optimizing the use of ultrasound, particularly in resource-limited settings and integrating technology into radiology education, locally and globally.
World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB)
Dr Annamaria Deganello is a paediatric radiology Consultant at King's College Hospital in London, with a specialist interest in paediatric hepatobiliary and liver transplantation imaging as well as in contrast enhanced and multiparametric ultrasound. She is member of the BMUS Educational Committee, the ESR Ultrasound Safety, Quality and Standards Subcommittee and ESOR Planning Committee. She is the spokesperson for paediatric radiology and ultrasound of WFUMB.
/environment-climate-change-and-health-(ech)/radiation-and-health-(rad)/webinar-wpsd2025-flyer.jpg?sfvrsn=c139c6b4_4 "World Patient Safety Day 2025 flyer")