title: Quality initiatives* radiation risk: what you should know to tell your patient.
abstract: The steady increase in the number of radiologic procedures being performed is undeniably having a beneficial impact on healthcare. However, it is also becoming common practice to quantify the health detriment from radiation exposure by calculating the number of cancer-related deaths inferred from the effective dose delivered to a given patient population. The inference of a certain number of expected deaths from the effective dose is to be discouraged, but it remains important as a means of raising professional awareness of the danger associated with ionizing radiation. The risk associated with a radiologic examination appears to be rather low compared with the natural risk. However, any added risk, no matter how small, is unacceptable if it does not benefit the patient. The concept of diagnostic reference levels should be used to reduce variations in practice among institutions and to promote optimal dose indicator ranges for specific imaging protocols. In general, the basic principles of radiation protection (eg, justification and optimization of a procedure) need to be respected to help counteract the unjustified explosion in the number of procedures being performed.
authors.affiliation: University Institute for Radiation Physics, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. francis.verdun@chuv.ch
authors.forename: Francis R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Verdun
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bochud
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gundinchet
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aroua
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schnyder
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meuli
mesh_terms: D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014481:United States