NQF 2009 Safe Practices for Better Healthcare includes Pediatric Imaging

The National Quality Forum (NQF) included in its recently released 2009 Safe Practices for Better Healthcare language advising health care professionals that “when CT imaging studies are undertaken on children, ‘child-size’ techniques should be used to reduce unnecessary exposure to ionizing radiation.”   Read more...... 

Resources for Informed Parents

   
You are invited to download these materials and reproduce locally.  You may include your own logo with the designation "Printed courtesy of X."  

• Visit the Parents page for all the downloadable informational brochures and the new "My Child's Medical Imaging Record" cards in 2 sizes.
• Alternatives to CT discussed
•  "Image Gently: Improving Health Literacy for Parents about CT Scans for Children" - Posted with permission from Pediatric Radiology
• "Shared Decision-Making will Optimize Use of CT in Children" - Reprinted with permission of AAP News, January 2009. 

One size does not fit all... 

There's no question: CT helps us save kids' lives!

But, when we image, radiation matters!

Children are more sensitive to radiation.
What we do now lasts their lifetimes.

So, when we image, let's image gently:
More is often not better.

When CT is the right thing to do:
     Child size the kVp and mA 
     One scan (single phase) is often enough 
     Scan only the indicated area
 

What's New?

• News from the 2009 NCRP Meeting - 3/3/2009
  • Medical Radiation Exposure of the U.S. Population Greatly Increased Since the Early 1980s
  •  ACR-SPR-SBI-SCBT-MR Response
• Alliance prepares Parent Information materials. Visit the Parents page! 
• State of New York, Department of Health sends image gently message to NY physicians. Read it here.
• Listen to: Pediatric MDCT Protocol Workshop: Image Quality vs. Dose (audio only) Presented at SPR 2008
• Radiation Risks and Pediatric Computed Tomography (CT): A Guide for Health Care Providers - from NCI and SPR
• Incorporating Radiation Dose Assessments Into the ACR Appropriateness Criteria® - from JACR
• FDA Consumer Update: Radiology & Children: Extra Care Required
• From the Pediatric Emergency Physician community:  ALARA: is there a cause for alarm? Reducing radiation risks from computed tomography scanning in children- Current Opinion in Pediatrics, July 2008
• The Image Gently Campaign supported by a Congressional Resolution
• Image Gently is now an international movement with these new organizations joining the Alliance: Canadian Association of Radiologists, the Sociedad Latino Americana de Radiologia Pediatrica, the Asian-Oceanic Society for Paediatric Radiology,  The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists and on 9/2/08, the European Society of Paediatric Radiology.