PACS, DICOM and dose
An ongoing series of unfortunate events broke down existing radiation dose safety protocols in the CT perfusion unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Although the investigation into the cause of the cascade of failure is ongoing, some data has emerged.
Over an 18-month period, 206 CT brain perfusion patients at the facility received radiation doses that were approximately eight times higher than the expected level. Hospital officials said there was a misunderstanding about an embedded default setting applied by the CT system that resulted in a higher than expected amount of radiation.
Could IT have alerted personnel to the problem sooner? Without a thorough analysis of the entire system at the facility, the answer is a firm “maybe.” However, PACS professionals may want to seriously consider implementing the capabilities of the DICOM Dose Structured Report (SR) object in their practice to help mitigate events such as these.
Medical imaging IT tools, such as the DICOM Dose SR, offer a practical method to assist healthcare providers in ensuring that the radiation dose being delivered to patients is as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA).
Once deployed, the report summary gives an overview of the whole patient exam and the accumulated x-ray radiation dose applied. The generation, relationship and dose of each event are stated in separate sequences, as well as standard data such as general equipment information. More importantly, the total dose-length product (DLP) of a patient’s CT exam is required.
PACS administrators interested in finding out more about this practical patient safety tool will want to read through Supplement 127 of the DICOM standard. Next, they’ll next want to check their system’s DICOM conformance statement for SR object support to ensure they can offer these capabilities to their practice.
If you’re looking to bolster the capabilities of your RIS/PACS, please stop by our Healthcare Tech Guide. We have listings for vendors, systems, services and white papers for a variety of products spanning the medical imaging environment.
In closing, if you have a comment or report to share about the development or deployment of RIS/PACS in your practice, please contact me at the address below. I look forward to hearing from you.
Jonathan Batchelor, Editor
jbatchelor@trimedmedia.com
Over an 18-month period, 206 CT brain perfusion patients at the facility received radiation doses that were approximately eight times higher than the expected level. Hospital officials said there was a misunderstanding about an embedded default setting applied by the CT system that resulted in a higher than expected amount of radiation.
Could IT have alerted personnel to the problem sooner? Without a thorough analysis of the entire system at the facility, the answer is a firm “maybe.” However, PACS professionals may want to seriously consider implementing the capabilities of the DICOM Dose Structured Report (SR) object in their practice to help mitigate events such as these.
Medical imaging IT tools, such as the DICOM Dose SR, offer a practical method to assist healthcare providers in ensuring that the radiation dose being delivered to patients is as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA).
Once deployed, the report summary gives an overview of the whole patient exam and the accumulated x-ray radiation dose applied. The generation, relationship and dose of each event are stated in separate sequences, as well as standard data such as general equipment information. More importantly, the total dose-length product (DLP) of a patient’s CT exam is required.
PACS administrators interested in finding out more about this practical patient safety tool will want to read through Supplement 127 of the DICOM standard. Next, they’ll next want to check their system’s DICOM conformance statement for SR object support to ensure they can offer these capabilities to their practice.
If you’re looking to bolster the capabilities of your RIS/PACS, please stop by our Healthcare Tech Guide. We have listings for vendors, systems, services and white papers for a variety of products spanning the medical imaging environment.
In closing, if you have a comment or report to share about the development or deployment of RIS/PACS in your practice, please contact me at the address below. I look forward to hearing from you.
Jonathan Batchelor, Editor
jbatchelor@trimedmedia.com