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Doctors being educated on radiation risks of CT scans

Approximately 7 million CT exams are performed on children each year

How to limit patients’ exposure to radiation, Times Union, By Robert J. Rapoport, September 28, 2010 I applaud state Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines and Dr. Howard A. Freed, director of the department’s Center for Environmental Health, for their recent mailing to 16,000 New York pediatricians and other physicians on how to combat the growing public health problem of patient medical radiation exposure from CT scans.

The mailing included information about the national “Image Gently” campaign to decrease pediatric radiation exposure from CT scans and a record-keeping card for a patient to track CT exams

CT scan utilization has increased rapidly in the past 30 years and is now the largest single cause of patient radiation for diagnostic tests. The Health Department reports that the number of CT scans performed annually “has grown from 3 million scans in 1980 to 62 million in 2006. Approximately 7 million CT exams are performed on children each year.” A landmark November 2007 New England Journal of Medicine article by Dr. David J. Brenner of Columbia University estimated medical radiation may cause up to 2 percent of future cancers; subsequent articles have come to similar conclusion.

As our population ages, CT applications increase. And as more patients are insured with

How to limit patients’ exposure to radiation – Times Union

October 7, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | radiation, radioactive