Unjustified referrals to radiological examinations and their impact on the collective effective dose of patients in outpatient medical organizations

Abstract

In recent years, an increase in the collective dose from medical exposure has been recorded annually, which is associated with an increase in the availability of high-tech methods of medical care and an increase of their percentage in the structure of X-ray studies. However, any exposure to ionizing radiation on a patient is associated with an increased risk of stochastic effects. The justification principle is the most effective to ensure the radiation safety of patients. The article considers in detail the experiment on the application of the justification principle in medical organizations. The aim of the study was to evaluate the incidence of unjustified referrals to radiological examinations and their impact on the collective effective dose of patients in outpatient medical organizations. As a result, it was ound, that the collective dose from studies with unjustified referrals contributes 21% to the annual collective dose from X-ray studies in outpatient medical organizations. The result obtained confirms the need to ensure the availability of information on clinical recommendations, the accumulated effective dose and patient characteristics in medical information systems, and proves the importance of using this information when prescribing X-ray radiological studies.

Keywords

• effective dose
• justification principle
• medical exposure
• collective effective dose