Also, the articles -- after excluding patients with cancer or within five years of the end of life -- assumed that those undergoing CT scanning have the same life expectancy as the general population. This is not accurate, so the estimates are undoubtedly high. Moreover, 25 percent of people in the United States die of cancer with a life time incidence of 40 percent, about 1.5 million new cancers per year. The 29,000 figure, if even close to accurate, is overall a very small risk versus the immediate, proven life saving benefits of CT.

The ACR urges patients and providers to visit the "Radiology Safety" section of the ACR Web site as well as the "Radiation Safety" section of www.radiologyinfo.org, the patient information site co-managed by the ACR and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and the Image Gently™ site (www.imagegently.org) for more information regarding radiation exposure from medical imaging exams.


Patients should also keep a record of their X-ray history and before undergoing a scan, should ask their physician:

* Why do I need this exam?
* How will having this exam improve my health care?
* Are there alternatives that do not use radiation which are equally as good?
* Is this facility ACR accredited?
* Is my child receiving a "kid-size" radiation dose (for pediatric exams)?

ACR accreditation ensures that:

1. The physician interpreting scans has met stringent education and training standards
2. The technologists operating the equipment are certified by the appropriate body
3. The imaging equipment is surveyed regularly by a medical physicist to make sure that is functioning properly and is taking optimal images.

Imaging Growth:

The March 2009 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) report to Congress [page 99 --lower left] states that Medicare imaging utilization growth for 2006, 2007 was only 2 percent nationally -- at or below the growth rate of other major physician services. According to Moran Company report, MRI volume actually went down in 2008.

Helpful Resources:

ACR Accredited Facility Search Page
http://www.acr.org/accreditation/AccreditedFacilitySearch.aspx

ACR Appropriateness Criteria®
ACR Appropriateness Criteria® help physicians prescribe the most appropriate imaging exam for more than 200 clinical conditions (particularly when an imaging exam that does not use radiation may be more appropriate for a given condition).
http://www.acr.org/ac

Radiation Exposure Estimates from Common Imaging Procedures
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/safety/index.cfm?pg=sfty_xray&bhcp=1

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