The trick to using medical radiation appropriately, experts say, is to balance the potential risks against known benefits… but this is not done nearly enough. There's been an astronomical rise in recent years in the use of radiation for medical imaging, especially for CT scans, leading to unnecessary medical costs and an increased risk of
The trick to using medical radiation appropriately, experts say, is to balance the potential risks against known benefits… but this is not done nearly enough. There's been an astronomical rise in recent years in the use of radiation for medical imaging, especially for CT scans, leading to unnecessary medical costs and an increased risk of cancer in patients. Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a specialist in radiology and biomedical imaging at the University of California, San Francisco, says, “More than 10 percent of patients each year are receiving very high radiation exposures… Patients should ask, ‘What is this test for? Do I need it? Why? Do I need it now?’" Some of the newest forms of radiological imaging being used now have not even been tested in scientifically designed clinical trials yet, and thus their true benefits are at best a guess. There is already a California law requiring that the dose used for CT scans be recorded in every patient’s medical record and that inadvertent overdoses be reported to the state immediately… If such recording were to become a national mandate, electronic medical records could help doctors and patients keep track of radiation exposures and avoid unnecessary imaging. As it is now, even though the cancer-causing effects of radiation are cumulative, no one keeps track of how much radiation patients have already been exposed to when a new imaging exam is ordered.
The New York Times, 8/21/2012
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