Radiology Institute Joins Hands with Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Tianyi Keyuan to Win Gold at National Invention Exhibition: Novel Medical Radiation Protection Materials Achieve Scaled Translational Application

At the recently held 30th National Invention Exhibition · "Belt and Road" & BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition, the project "Key Technologies for Brachytherapy Radiation Protection Materials and Series of Radiation Protection Products," jointly applied for by the Institute of Radiation Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Radiology Institute), Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Peking Union Medical College Hospital), and Tianjin Tianyi Keyuan Technology Co., Ltd. (Tianyi Keyuan), stood out from numerous competing projects and won the Gold Award by virtue of key technological breakthroughs in the field of medical radiation protection.

The award-winning project focuses on the long-standing radiation protection pain points in the clinical frontline of interventional therapy and brachytherapy. Through cross-disciplinary collaborative research by the three parties of medicine, research, and enterprise, it has systematically developed a series of innovative product matrices covering scenarios such as occupational health protection for medical staff, protection of normal tissues during radiotherapy for tumor patients, and specialized protection for scar radiotherapy.

In the field of occupational protection for medical staff, the Radiology Institute has successfully developed a tungsten-bismuth resin lead-free X-ray radiation protection suit. The product uses modified resin as the matrix and incorporates a novel high-atomic-number tungsten-bismuth lead-free shielding core component. On the premise of meeting radiation shielding effectiveness, it weighs nearly one-third less than traditional lead protection suits, greatly alleviating the musculoskeletal strain caused by long-term weight-bearing surgery for interventional physicians, and also offers advantages such as soft texture, corrosion resistance, and environmentally friendly recyclability. At present, the product has cumulatively obtained 16 Class I medical device filing certificates, covers a full series of categories including radiation protection caps, radiation protection collars, and protection suits, and has achieved commercial batch application in more than 200 general hospitals across 23 provinces and municipalities nationwide.

In the field of protection for radiotherapy patients, addressing the challenge of acute radiation dermatitis caused by high-energy ionizing radiation, the medical radiation protection spray developed by the team has obtained a Class II medical device registration certificate and successfully completed translational commercialization. The spray adopts a two-component packaging process and, through highly active superoxide dismutase (SOD) synergizing with curcumin, achieves the dual effects of rapidly neutralizing radiation-induced reactive oxygen free radicals and providing long-acting anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. It significantly reduces the incidence and severity of radiation skin reactions in patients with head and neck, chest, and breast tumors, and has currently been clinically applied in more than ten well-known tertiary Grade A hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and other locations.

In addition, in response to industry shortcomings such as the difficulty of medical lead sheets conforming to irregular wounds in superficial X-ray radiotherapy for keloids and the cross-contamination risk of traditional lead rubber materials, the Radiology Institute has independently developed a medical X-ray skin protective agent with a patented lead-free formula. The product can not only be used as a Class II innovative medical device for flexible epidermal conformal protection in scar radiotherapy, but can also be used for convenient protection of the hands and forearms of medical staff during interventional procedures, without interfering with delicate surgical operations. At present, the product has completed patent licensing and transfer, and is being comprehensively advanced toward clinical validation and registration application in collaboration with the Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and an industrialization team.