US report calls for national strategy to reduce overuse of medical imaging

Overuse of medical imaging exposes patients to unnecessary radiation and increases healthcare costs, warns a report published by a group of US radiologists. It calls for a national strategy and evidence based guidelines to reduce unnecessary imaging procedures.

The annual radiation dose to which the US population is exposed for medical procedures rose sevenfold from 1980 to 2006, show figures in the report (http://radiology.rsna.org/), which also said that the number of people exposed to medical radiation in this period rose by 32%.

The findings are based on research presentations at …