Overexposed: Imaging tests boost U.S. radiation dose

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Americans are exposed to seven times more radiation from diagnostic scans than in 1980, a report found on Tuesday as experts said doctors are overusing the tests for profit and raising health risks for patients.

The findings, issued by National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement, add to already mounting evidence that doctors are ordering too many diagnostic tests, driving up the cost of healthcare in the United States and potentially harming patients.

While diagnostic scans give doctors valuable information and many times are necessary, doctors fear too much radiation exposure can cause cancer, especially in younger people.

"Imaging has literally become the guiding hand of medical practice," said Dr. James Thrall, chair of the American College of Radiology's Board of Chancellors, who was not part of the study.

"Unfortunately, one of the things we have seen in the imaging world is that many physicians look at imaging as the solution to their financial problems," Thrall, head of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in a telephone interview.

He said imaging technology has created a financial incentive for some doctors to cash in by referring patients to get imaging tests on equipment in their own practices. This is one place the federal government and Congress can look in enacting healthcare reform, Thrall added.

A study by the Government Accountability Office in July found Medicare spending on medical imaging doubled to about $14 billion a year between 2000 and 2006, driven largely by increases in high-tech imaging.

In November, a 10-year study by a team at the University of California, San Francisco, found use of computed tomography or CT scans, an advanced type of X-ray, doubled among patients in a large managed care plan between 1997 and 2006.