Smartcard Informs on Radiation Risks of Adult Radiologic Exams

Scientists have developed a pocket-sized reference card to inform on the effective doses and radiation risks of common adult radiologic exams to referring physicians and patients.

Details of the device were published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. The Adult Dose-Risk Smartcard, developed by researchers from the department of radiology at the University of Colorado (Denver, CO, USA), was designed to facilitate radiation risk consultations and improve patient satisfaction by simplifying basic facts on radiation dose and risk to a level of understanding by referring physicians and their patients. The Adult Dose-Risk Smartcard is part of the radiology department’s ongoing efforts to ensure safe medical imaging.

“This allows patients to make more informed decisions about the relative risks of radiologic examinations compared with the medical risk caused by refusing a recommended imaging procedure,” said R. Edward Hendrick, PhD, lead author of the article.

The smartcard permits the comparison of effective doses from various radiologic examinations to natural background radiation levels. The smartcard also provides a color-coded scale categorizing risks of a fatal radiation-induced cancer and permits comparison to risks of death from other causes. Most estimates of cancer risk from the low-dose radiation exposures in the smartcard are based on the latest report from the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

“We recognize that there may be significant age-dependent and gender-dependent variations in both radiation dose and risk estimates. The Adult Dose-Risk Smartcard does not attempt to incorporate all of those variations but instead to communicate a representative estimate of effective doses and radiation risks to adults from various radiologic procedures,” said Dr. Hendrick. “Like other radiology departments, the University of Colorado department of radiology is dedicated to the goal of ensuring that patients undergoing diagnostic examinations receive the minimum radiation dose needed to yield a medical benefit.”

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