Last October,
we told you about a case where 206 patients were suing LA’s famed Cedars Sinai Medical center because of accidental overdoses of radiation they received during medical imaging there. Now, as more and more reports emerge about possible radiation overdoses, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is getting involved.
The FDA recently
announced an initiative to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from three types of medical imaging procedures: computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine studies, and fluoroscopy. According to the FDA:
“These procedures are the greatest contributors to total radiation exposure within the U.S. population and use much higher radiation doses than other radiographic procedures, such as standard X-rays, dental X-rays, and mammography.”
In addition, according to the
Miami Herald, a medical imaging trade group announced last month that it would begin installing safety controls on scanners to prevent overdoses. The controls will “alert machine operators whenever a machine's settings exceed recommended levels.”
I also recently came across an
article in The New York Times that referenced a number of additional radiation overdose incidents. In Missouri, a hospital said it had overradiated 76 patients during a five-year period because radiation equipment had been set up incorrectly. In Florida, a similar problem resulted in:
“77 brain cancer patients’ receiving 50 percent more radiation than prescribed in 2004 and 2005.”
To be sure, it is good news that the FDA is involved and taking a closer look at regulations and other safeguards to prevent these overdoses.
Like all medical technologies, advanced medical imaging devices may hold the promise to better diagnosis and health care outcomes. However, these are powerful machines. If not set up correctly or deployed by under-trained technicians, the risks to patients are real.
We’ll be following this story for further developments.