title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Baltimore VA Medical Center, Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Baltimore, Maryland. Electronic address: breiner1@comcast.net.
authors.forename: Bruce I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Reiner
mesh_terms: D057225:Data Mining; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000592:standards*; D011873:Radiology Information Systems; D012307:Risk Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000592:standards*
keywords: Radiation safety; data mining; decision support