A prospective study assessing clinicians attitude and knowledge on radiation exposure to patients during radiological investigations.
BACKGROUND
Exposure to radiation during radiological investigations is of health concern, which referring physicians should rationalize. Hence, we assessed the clinician's awareness and concern of radiation exposure to patients, in relation to their referral practice.


METHODS
A prospective study was conducted involving specialists from Punjab (India), who were handed a standard set of questionnaire concerning knowledge of radiation hazards and doses from imaging procedures, consideration of radiation dose and age when referring, referrals not likely to affect treatment, and use of referral guidelines were included. Of the 150 medical doctors given the questionnaire, 106 returned it.


RESULTS
Majority of the clinicians underestimated radiation doses, while a few overestimated it. Almost half of the clinicians (55.5%) favored to select the rationale of asking about previous radiological examinations as clinical need only, which was surprising. Rates of referrals unlikely to affect treatment were more (66%) than reported rates in previous studies. Worryingly, only 30.1% of the clinicians had knowledge of referral guidelines and alarmingly only 10.5% had made use of it.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study although in a small population size identifies inadequate knowledge on radiation and its guidelines among referral physicians, which warrants the immediate need for training programs to bridge this knowledge gap.
Department of Radiology, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab, India.
Paramdeep
P
Singh
Department of Radiology, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab, India.
Simmi
S
Aggarwal
Department of Radiology, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab, India.
Amteshwar Mohan
AM
Singh Kapoor
Department of Medicine, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab, India.
Rupinderjeet
R
Kaur
Department of Pediatrics, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, Punjab, India.
Amarpreet
A
Kaur
Knowledge; attitude; exposure; hazards; questionnaire; radiation