Radiology Isn't Rocket Science

From the Health Business Blog: Image Gently for Teens too.

There has been some recent awareness about the dangers of radiation to young children (theoretically understood for only the last hundred years or so) resulting in initiatives like Image Gently, urging adjustment of radiation doses for CT scans (necessary ones only, please) in kids. Apparently, there's a cutoff at age 12, so that once that magic birth date arrives, teens are subjected to the full pre-set adult radiation dose.

Cut me a break! Pediatric medications are dosed by weight. There are cutoffs too, but more often by weight than purely by age. I refuse to believe that a highly techno-savvy radiology department is incapable of adjusting the radiation settings based on a patient's weight as well, whatever their age. Good heavens! It's probably even possible to incorporate a scale into a CT table and program the computer to make the adjustment automatically, letting the tech override the setting if desired, instead of making the poor thing remember one more detail.

It's not brain surgery, after all.