2.25.2010

Nation’s CT Manufacturers Unveil New Industry-Wide Medical Radiation Patient Safety Features

Newswise — As part of its ongoing commitment to ensuring safe, appropriate and effective medical imaging and radiation therapy, the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) announced today a new industry-wide commitment to more expansively address patient safety in medical imaging by including new radiation dose safeguards.

A new radiation dose check feature will provide an alert to CT machine operators when recommended radiation dose levels – as determined by hospitals and imaging centers – will be exceeded. The alert is designed to provide a clear indication to health care providers when radiation dose adjustments made for a patient’s exam would result in delivering a dose higher than the facility’s pre-determined dose threshold for routine use. Known as a “reference dose,” this dose threshold level at which the new alert will appear will be set by clinicians. MITA and its member companies stand ready to work with professional organizations, regulatory bodies, and individual clinicians on implementing this feature and to assist in establishing these diagnostic reference dose values.

Moreover, manufacturers said today they are also committed to including an additional safeguard that will allow hospitals and imaging facilities to set maximum radiation dose limits that would prevent CT scanning at higher, potentially dangerous radiation levels.

source: Newswise

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