isrrt Newsletter Volume 46. No.1 - 2010

Report
appropriate radiation dose for each procedure, help ensure
that patients receive a consistent radiation dose regardless
of equipment make and reinforce a consistent baseline
quality of care,” said J. Anthony Seibert, Ph.D., FAAPM,
professor of radiology at University of California, Davis
Medical Center, and president-elect of the AAPM.
ACR to Establish Pediatric Dose Registry
An additional summit discussion focused on the importance
of tracking pediatric exams. Currently, there isn’t a pediatric
digital dose registry in the United States. To address
this gap, the American College of Radiology announced
that it will work with meeting organizers to develop a
registry to track children’s exposure to radiation.“This is
an important step forward to develop national benchmarks
for quality and optimizing dose for this modality. The
ACR is committed to ensuring that all patients, particularly
children, receive safe, appropriate care. This pediatric dose
registry in digital radiography will join the previously
launched CT dose registry in providing valuable feedback
to participating practices in reducing the radiation dose that
Americans and in particular children receive each year from
imaging studies,” said Laura Coombs, Ph.D., director or the
American College of Radiology’s National Radiology Data
Registries.
Expanded Technologist Education
Expanding educational opportunities also was on the
summit’s agenda. Understanding that digital radiography
educational materials are limited, educators and equipment
manufactures agreed to collaborate and form a digital
radiography educational workgroup led by Susan John,
M.D., Chair of Radiology at University of Texas Medical
School at Houston.
“More robust and standardized education opportunities
for radiologic technologists are vital steps toward ensuring
safe, consistent care, regardless of market size or geographic
location. All imaging stakeholders need to work together
to ensure that patients receive the highest quality of care
available,” said Greg Morrison, M.A., R.T.(R), CNMT,
CAE, chief operating officer of the American Society of
Radiologic Technologists.
Overall CR/DR Radiation Reduction
Digital radiography exams are the world’s most common
diagnostic medical imaging procedures. In addition to
providing the radiology team with detailed anatomical
views, the technology offers a wide variety of images,
increased latitude for exposure techniques and the ability
to post-process images. Nevertheless, medical imaging
professionals have to be cautious when performing pediatric
digital imaging procedures because children are more
sensitive to radiation than adults.
“The summit was a very successful first step in
educating radiologists, radiologic technologists, medical
imaging physicists, the FDA and manufacturers of digital
radiography equipment about the unique problems faced by
those using this equipment for children’s imaging in daily
practice,” said Marilyn Goske, M.D., chair of the Alliance
and Silverman chair for Radiology Education at Cincinnati
Children’s Medical Center. “The Alliance looks forward to
continued work with all medical professionals, educators
and vendors in moving forward to ensure that pediatric
patients receive only the necessary dose for their indication
and that there are consistent, reliable protocols in place to
help achieve this goal.
About the Alliance for Radiation Safety in
Pediatric Imaging
Founded by the Society for Pediatric Radiology, the
American College of Radiology, the American Society of
Radiologic Technologists and the American Association of
Physicists in Medicine, the Alliance for Radiation Safety in
Pediatric Imaging is comprised of 54 organizations working
together to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from
imaging examinations in children. It represents more than
600,000 health care professionals. v
Dr Michael Ward, ISRRT Regional Director, The Americas,
attended the Digital Radiography Summit in St Louis on
behalf of ISRRT.
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