Image Gently campaign now includes interventional radiology

The Image Gently campaign has developed online teaching materials and checklists to help interventional radiology providers use the lowest dose necessary to perform interventional procedures on children.

Children are more sensitive to radiation received from imaging scans than adults, and cumulative radiation exposure to their bodies could, over time, have adverse effects, according to the campaign. When interventional procedures are the correct treatment for disease or injury, providers are, where appropriate, urged to:
  • Take time out: stop and child-size the technique;
  • Step lightly on the fluoroscopy pedal; and
  • Consider ultrasound or, when applicable, MRI guidance.

“Interventional, or image-guided, minimally invasive surgeries are increasingly replacing more invasive techniques. This latest extension of the Image Gently campaign can give interventional providers real-world, practical guidance regarding how they can help ensure that the radiation dose administered to the patients is as low as possible given the particular circumstances of each case,” said Marilyn Goske, MD, chair of the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging, past board chair of the Society for Pediatric Radiology and chair for radiology education in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Interventional radiology exams, according to a National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) report, are the third largest dose contributor in medicine following CT and nuclear medicine procedures. This extension of the Image Gently campaign is an effort to help ensure that medical techniques for the performance of interventional procedures keep pace with advancing technology and the increasing use of these techniques.

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