A 2009 report by the National Council of Radiation Protection and Measurements (“Ionizing Radiation Exposure of the Population of the United States”) [1] showed that almost half of the annual radiation exposure to the US population was from medical imaging of patients.
The largest medical sources were computed tomography (CT),
nuclear medicine and interventional fluoroscopy.
That same year a joint task force of the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) identified the need to address growing concerns about the ionizing radiation associated with medical imaging.
As a result,
the ACR and RSNA,
along with the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT),
established the Image Wisely® campaign with the goals of advocating the optimization of radiation dose and raising awareness of appropriate indications for imaging exams.
This campaign was modeled on the highly-successful Image Gently® campaign [2] for pediatric imaging.
Image Wisely® was launched at the RSNA Annual Meeting in 2010 with a new website (www.imagewisely.org) featuring a joint poster with Image Gently® (see Figure 1) and material for its first initiative (CT).
[3] Subsequent initiatives have provided content for nuclear medicine (2012) and for fluoroscopy (2014).
In 2013,
imagewisely.org began offering its physician,
medical physicist,
and imaging technologist visitors the opportunity to earn free continuing education credits with a new feature,
the Image Wisely® Radiation Safety Case.
Bonn Call-for-Action
In 2013,
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) published the outcome of an international conference to identify stakeholder responsibilities and proposed priorities for regarding radiation protection in medicine for the next decade.
This specific outcome was called the “Bonn Call-for-Action.” In 2014,
Image Wisely® assessed its existing activities (and those of its member organizations to prevent duplication of effort) in context of the 10 Bonn action items.
As a result,
in 2015,
a new charge for Image Wisely® was developed and approved by the ACR and RSNA:
Image Wisely® is an initiative (developed in 2010) by the ACR,
RSNA,
AAPM and ASRT to raise awareness and provide up-to-date educational resources for radiology professionals and referring clinicians regarding the use of ionizing radiation in adult medical imaging examinations.
The goals of Image Wisely® are to provide information on:
This educational and awareness initiative is conducted through a website (www.imagewisely.org) which provides links to current literature and dose-related news,
information on imaging protocols,
links to pertinent regulatory and standards organizations,
as well as instruction through the Image Wisely Radiation Safety Case series.
Along with developing a new charge,
the Executive Committee evaluated the impact of Image Wisely® by assessing awareness of and participation in its informational and educational offerings.