Cutting-Edge Medical Technology
Seems there's times when more isn't better. Nor are advances in newer health technologies necessarily better for the health and longevity of patients. But high tech medical gadgetry is all the rage, and tests are routinely prescribed for patients whose health conditions may not necessarily require them, while their physicians are happy to send them off for those tests "just in case", sending health care expenses into the stratosphere, at the very time that they're doing real physical harm to the patients.
Computed tomography, CT scans have been celebrated as a huge break-through in X-ray technology. Allowing a much more detailed scan of interior of the human body. Bringing into close scrutiny elements of the body interior for specialized diagnosis. At the same time those CT scans involved a hugely more significant radiation dose than compared with conventional X-rays. Say, accounting for 100 times greater radiation? That cannot be good news. And it isn't.
New data, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, give evidence that people are being unnecessarily over-exposed to high radiation levels from these diagnostic tests. "What we learned is there is a significant amount of radiation with these CT scans, more than what we thought, and there is a significant number of cancers", according to the editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"It's estimated that just from the CT scans done in one year, just in 2007, there will be 15,000 excess deaths", Dr. Rita Redberg stated. "We're doing millions of CT scans every year and the numbers are increasing. That is a lot of excess deaths." Sobering, isn't it? In the bid to cure us by new imaging techniques enabling doctors to take a closer look at what ails us - or doesn't, as the case may be - we are being placed in increased danger of mortality.
Some 70 million CT scans were performed in the United States in 2007, a sharp increase over 1980, when a mere 3 million were performed. Experts estimate that those scans performed in 2007 will be the ultimate cause of 29,000 cancers, and of that number one third of those with CT-assisted cancers will die.
Within Canada, CT scans rose from 2.5 million in 2003 to 3.4 million in 2007. With the increase of use of this technology came an increase in acquisition of CT scanners, more than doubling between 1991 and 2007. After all, popular opinion has it that more advanced technologies are more readily available in the United States, and eventually make their way into Canada.
This is an obviously-useful technology. But it should be used with caution. "While certainly some of the scans are incredibly important and life-saving, it is also certain that some of them were not necessary", according to Dr. Redberg, who pointed out that doctors' enthused interest in the tests had led to an explosion in their use, which has led directly to risky outcomes.
A 2008 release by the Canadian Institute for Health Information revealed that 103 CT scans were performed per one thousand people in 2007, in comparison to 207 per one thousand in the United States. In this instance, one could say with a good degree of accuracy that less most definitely is superior.
Computed tomography, CT scans have been celebrated as a huge break-through in X-ray technology. Allowing a much more detailed scan of interior of the human body. Bringing into close scrutiny elements of the body interior for specialized diagnosis. At the same time those CT scans involved a hugely more significant radiation dose than compared with conventional X-rays. Say, accounting for 100 times greater radiation? That cannot be good news. And it isn't.
New data, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, give evidence that people are being unnecessarily over-exposed to high radiation levels from these diagnostic tests. "What we learned is there is a significant amount of radiation with these CT scans, more than what we thought, and there is a significant number of cancers", according to the editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"It's estimated that just from the CT scans done in one year, just in 2007, there will be 15,000 excess deaths", Dr. Rita Redberg stated. "We're doing millions of CT scans every year and the numbers are increasing. That is a lot of excess deaths." Sobering, isn't it? In the bid to cure us by new imaging techniques enabling doctors to take a closer look at what ails us - or doesn't, as the case may be - we are being placed in increased danger of mortality.
Some 70 million CT scans were performed in the United States in 2007, a sharp increase over 1980, when a mere 3 million were performed. Experts estimate that those scans performed in 2007 will be the ultimate cause of 29,000 cancers, and of that number one third of those with CT-assisted cancers will die.
Within Canada, CT scans rose from 2.5 million in 2003 to 3.4 million in 2007. With the increase of use of this technology came an increase in acquisition of CT scanners, more than doubling between 1991 and 2007. After all, popular opinion has it that more advanced technologies are more readily available in the United States, and eventually make their way into Canada.
This is an obviously-useful technology. But it should be used with caution. "While certainly some of the scans are incredibly important and life-saving, it is also certain that some of them were not necessary", according to Dr. Redberg, who pointed out that doctors' enthused interest in the tests had led to an explosion in their use, which has led directly to risky outcomes.
A 2008 release by the Canadian Institute for Health Information revealed that 103 CT scans were performed per one thousand people in 2007, in comparison to 207 per one thousand in the United States. In this instance, one could say with a good degree of accuracy that less most definitely is superior.
Labels: Canada, Health, United States, Whoops
posted by Pieface @ 5:56 PM
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