Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2017
Keywords:
Economics, Socio-economic issues, Ethics, Cost-effectiveness, Plain radiographic studies, Mammography, CT, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Professional issues, Management, Action 12 - Information for and communication with patients, Action 11 - Improved patient communication, Education and training
Authors:
J. Vilar Palop, B. Lumbreras, J. Vilar, I. González Álvarez, M. Guilabert, M. Pastor-Valero, L. A. Parker, I. Hernández-Aguado
DOI:
10.1594/esi2017/ESI-0026
Background/Introduction
Healthcare overuse is an increasing problem with adverse consequences for patients and physicians,
and serious economic implications [1].
Several attempts to deal with this problem have been made,
most of which primarily involve healthcare providers.
However,
there is a general consensus that any strategy should also include the individual patient’s opinion and preferences [2].
In the last decades,
a significant part of healthcare overuse is attributable to a massive increase in medical imaging [3].
This increase,
mainly observed in Computerized Tomography (CT),
has led some institutions such as the Food and Drug Administration [4] and the European Commission [5] to introduce legislation to prevent overuse of medical imaging and avoid unnecessary radiation exposure to the population.
One of their main initiatives is to enforce the recording of the radiation dose received by each patient undergoing a medical imaging test [5].
This will increase physicians’ awareness of the risks associated with the imaging tests.
It is also necessary that patients understand the risks of radiation associated with imaging tests,
given that previous studies have shown that well informed patients are less likely to request unnecessary diagnostic tests [6].
At the same time,
patients need to be informed about the risks associated with not undergoing a specific imaging test as well.
To accomplish this,
physicians need to be aware of how much patients know and how they feel about radiation exposure.
However,
to our knowledge,
no studies have analyzed patients’ preferences for different presentation formats comparing these approaches when communicating risks associated to radiation exposure,
and very few have investigated patients’ knowledge of and attitudes towards radiation [7-10] and even less have focused on the general population [11].
The aim of this study was to evaluate the general populations’ awareness about the radiation exposure associated with five specific diagnostic imaging tests,
and their preference regarding three different formats for receiving the information before undergoing a medical imaging test.