For equipment that is beyond repair, the ROC has an area dedicated to harvesting parts. A deconstructed CT scanner was on site, which an employee said would be stripped for approximately 30 reusable parts — which would be tested, packaged and deployed to the supply chain — before the remaining shell would be recycled.

Children not at increased risk for cancer from routine imaging tests: study

In a pronouncement sure to add kindling to a long-burning debate, a group of researchers maintain that normal CT and nuclear medicine imaging do not put kids — or adults — at higher risk for cancer. Furthermore, they assert the premise for such concerns is based on misinterpretation of a foundational study dating back 70 years.



The original studies giving rise to LNT, published by a Nobel Laureate and others, concluded that all radiation was harmful, regardless of the dose and dose rate, down to zero dose. However, the Journal of Nuclear Medicine article asserts the studies were not done at low doses, so the conclusions were inaccurate.

Jeffry Siegel, Ph.D., president and CEO of Nuclear Physics maintains that the resulting current drive for minimal doses as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) is based on a misinterpretation of these original studies. Also, the study asserts that Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb blasts in World War II — the gold standard in dose-response population according to the article — illustrate the faulty assumptions of LNT and ALARA for both pediatric and adult populations.

The notion that the public perception of radiation is misguided has been floated several times over the last few years by several different research groups, but in 2017 we got the first glimpse of a future where the war against dose might not be the top order of business when it comes to imaging exams. Unless evidence to the contrary emerges, it would indicate a sea change from the mindset that has driven the last decade of innovation.

Which brings us to the last item on our list...

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