New Brunswick to re-examine 30,000 imaging studies
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New Brunswick’s Regional Health Authority A (RHA A) and Regional Health Authority B (RHA B) said outside independent specialists will perform the review, which will cover a variety of radiology procedures—including ultrasounds, chest x-rays, fluoroscopies, venograms and mammographies--performed by Jain at hospitals in Grand Falls, Saint Quentin, Perth-Andover, Plaster Rock and Bath. The review will cover approximately 30,000 exams.
RHA B expects to finalize a list of affected patients within the next couple of weeks, said Édouard Hendriks, MD, vice-president of medical affairs.
"We are very much aware of the fact that people are affected by this situation," said Andrée Robichaud, president and CEO of RHA A. "Public safety is, and will remain, the regional health authority's absolute priority."
A full-scale review of Jain's work was prompted by an earlier study that found he had an error rate of about 16 percent, well above the three- to five-percent range deemed acceptable for radiologists. That review was conducted by a group of external radiologists who studied a sample of 332 exams conducted by Jain between Dec. 1, 2008, and Feb. 9, 2009. Of those 332 exams, 53 “raised concerns.”
The RHA A said it has taken appropriate steps to protect patient safety, including the suspension of Jain in September. The provincial government has also set up a toll-free phone line to provide information to the public. The review is expected to take approximately six months to complete.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Jain's wife said he retired in September.
"Patient safety is paramount," said New Brunswick Health Minister Mary Schryrer. "The Department of Health will be fully supporting every effort taken to respond to this matter. I have full confidence in the ability of our regional health authorities to respond to this situation, and we will work together to ensure public confidence is maintained in the healthcare system."
This is the latest in a series of cases in which it has become necessary to review the work of Canadian physicians. For example, an investigation in 2007 of a pathologist, Rajgopal Menon, MD, at Miramichi Regional Hospital in New Brunswick led to a re-examination of more than 23,700 cases handled by Menon between 1995 and 2007.
We are very much aware of the fact that people are affected by this situation," Andrée Robichaud, president and CEO of Regional Health Authority A, told reporters Monday at in Bathurst.
"Public safety is, and will remain, the regional health authority's absolute priority," she said