Awareness of the link between radiation exposure from medical imaging and patients' cancer risk may be affecting physicians' CT ordering patterns, according to an American Medical News report.
For example, a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association that assessed imaging use at six large HMOs found that while CT use grew by 10.2 percent annually from 1998 to 2005, the rate decreased to 4.2 percent from 2005 to 2008 and started to flatten out by 2007, according to the report.
Some physicians suggest this flattening out may indicate that findings on patients' increased cancer risk from medical imaging radiation may affect physicians' decisions to order scans, according to the report.
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For example, a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association that assessed imaging use at six large HMOs found that while CT use grew by 10.2 percent annually from 1998 to 2005, the rate decreased to 4.2 percent from 2005 to 2008 and started to flatten out by 2007, according to the report.
Some physicians suggest this flattening out may indicate that findings on patients' increased cancer risk from medical imaging radiation may affect physicians' decisions to order scans, according to the report.
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