The Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging recently hosted a pediatric computed tomography (CT) vendor summit to discuss product development to standardize radiation dose estimation settings and display language for pediatric CT scanners. Summit participants also explored how vendor provided education for technologists can promote better understanding of the unique steps required to safely perform CT scans on children. The session was held August 20 at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Cincinnati.

"Children are not just 'smaller adults.' Their bodies are different and require a different approach to imaging. The purpose of this summit is to work with the vendors to institute a different method to base estimates of radiation dose captured at the time of the CT scan," said Marilyn Goske, M.D., chair of the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging, past president of the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR), and Silverman Chair for Radiology Education, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "This summit is an example of how all imaging stakeholders can work together to ensure that our youngest patients everywhere receive the safe, effective imaging care that they deserve."

Children are more sensitive to radiation received from imaging scans than adults, and cumulative radiation exposure to their smaller, developing bodies could, over time, have adverse effects. For these reasons, the Alliance, founded by the SPR, the American College of Radiology (ACR), the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT), and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), launched the Image Gently™ campaign in January 2008 to urge pediatric imaging providers to:
- Significantly reduce, or "child-size," the amount of radiation used

- Not over-scan:
- Scan only when necessary
- Scan only the indicated region
- Scan once; multi-phase scanning (pre- and post-contrast, delayed exams) is rarely helpful

- Be a team player:
- Involve medical physicists to monitor pediatric CT techniques
- Involve technologists to optimize scanning


The Aug. 20 summit was the first formal step in the Image Gently effort to foster increased collaboration between providers and imaging manufacturers to produce scanners with common dose estimation settings and display language. The goal, ultimately, is to enable providers to more consistently perform scans with dose estimates appropriate for children. Providers would also work with vendors to produce educational opportunities which could uniformly instruct technologists how to use the equipment to consistently accommodate the special imaging needs of children.

More Industry Headlines