This 1 in 250 CT scan statistic could trigger a cultural shift
Posted Feb 24 2011 9:16am
by Sandra Yin
Memorable statistics can spur the creation of a movement, according to Bob Wachter in his blog, Wachter's World. The 1999 Institute of Medicine report, which estimated 98,000 Americans died each year from medical errors, helped launch the patient safety movement. But it seems to be struggling to maintain momentum.
Perhaps it's time we looked at another statistic that could serve as a catalyst for a much-needed cultural shift in healthcare.
According to Wachter's colleague, Rebecca Smith-Bindman, professor of radiology, epidemiology, and OB/gyn at UCSF and one of the country's experts on the risks of radiographs, a young woman who gets an abdominal-pelvic CT scan faces a 1 in 250 chance of getting cancer from that one scan, Wachter writes. Just about any woman who shows up at the ED with belly pain gets such a scan.
Doctors order these scans with impunity, despite some experts' estimate that at least one-third of all CT scans in any given year are not necessary.
Add stats like that to scary risk data that links radiation to cancer and it makes you wonder why the radiation from CT scanners has gone largely unregulated.
Some of the blame can be placed at the foot of the Medical-Industrial Complex, Wachter says. Scanning equipment manufacturers, radiologists and hospitals don't see the point of killing this egg-laying goose.
The solution,Wachter says, will involve changing a culture where physicians have become accustomed to ordering high-powered scans without any thought to possible unintended consequences. "Somehow, we must find a way to break our reflexive radiographic profligacy," Wachter writes. --See his full blog at Wachter's World
by Sandra Yin
Memorable statistics can spur the creation of a movement, according to Bob Wachter in his blog, Wachter's World. The 1999 Institute of Medicine report, which estimated 98,000 Americans died each year from medical errors, helped launch the patient safety movement. But it seems to be struggling to maintain momentum.
Perhaps it's time we looked at another statistic that could serve as a catalyst for a much-needed cultural shift in healthcare.
According to Wachter's colleague, Rebecca Smith-Bindman, professor of radiology, epidemiology, and OB/gyn at UCSF and one of the country's experts on the risks of radiographs, a young woman who gets an abdominal-pelvic CT scan faces a 1 in 250 chance of getting cancer from that one scan, Wachter writes. Just about any woman who shows up at the ED with belly pain gets such a scan.
Doctors order these scans with impunity, despite some experts' estimate that at least one-third of all CT scans in any given year are not necessary.
Add stats like that to scary risk data that links radiation to cancer and it makes you wonder why the radiation from CT scanners has gone largely unregulated.
Some of the blame can be placed at the foot of the Medical-Industrial Complex, Wachter says. Scanning equipment manufacturers, radiologists and hospitals don't see the point of killing this egg-laying goose.
The solution,Wachter says, will involve changing a culture where physicians have become accustomed to ordering high-powered scans without any thought to possible unintended consequences. "Somehow, we must find a way to break our reflexive radiographic profligacy," Wachter writes. --See his full blog at Wachter's World