Opportunities for radiation-dose optimization through standardized analytics and decision support

Abstract

Although the potential for adverse clinical outcomes related to medical radiation have been well documented for over a century, several relatively recent trends have increased awareness of radiation safety in medical imaging. These include expanded CT applications and utilization, increased patient attention on radiation carcinogenesis, and a wide array of legislative and societal radiation initiatives, created partly in response to media reports of CT-induced radiation complications. With this heightened radiation awareness and scrutiny comes a unique and timely opportunity for the collective medical-imaging community to incorporate comparative radiation metrics and analysis directly into routine workflow and reporting. If properly performed, a number of benefits could in theory be derived, including improved clinical outcomes, creation of data-driven best practice guidelines, opportunities for enhanced education and research, dose-reduction technology innovation, and reversal of existing commoditization trends.

Keywords: Radiation safety; data mining; decision support.