While the harmful effects of ionizing radiation have been common knowledge for some time, it is only in the last decade or so that there has been a heavy focus on patient safety in radiology. Unfortunately, this was largely because of heavily reported cases of patients suffering physical trauma due to being excessively dosed during computed tomography (CT) examinations. National organizations such as the American College of Radiology (ACR), Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance (MITA) and the Joint Commission have devised various standards related to radiation safety, but much of the progress of the last 10 years can be attributed to the efforts of individual states, which are in turn inspiring others to take action.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), precision-based medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person. This allows doctors to better tailor a treatment protocol for each individual, rather than the standard “one-size-fits-all” approach that is based on average generalizations.

Perhaps no issue has taken on more prominence in radiology than radiation safety for both patients and hospital staff. Several regulatory bodies have enacted guidelines in recent years to improve radiation dose monitoring and reporting for computed tomography (CT), including the Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance (MITA), which created the XR-29 “Smart Dose CT” standard. Beginning Jan. 1, 2016, the standard levied a reduction in Medicare reimbursement on the technical component of all diagnostic CT exams conducted on a non-compliant scanner. The initial reduction was set at 5 percent, but it jumped to 15 percent as of Jan. 1, 2017, giving providers and vendors even more incentive to closely monitor and manage dose.