Health News: Increasing Medical Imaging Use Will Race Health Cost And Risk

By Health News For Today.

Today's Health News.- New study and research report conducted by the University of California and San Francisco research members showed that consumers are getting more medical imaging tests than before, which is creating a double problems for everyone that can help the down economy problems become even bigger, specially to consumers that are having problems making money to stay a float of a financial brake down, also puts higher health risk concerns because of the radiation exposure.

First, the increase of medical imaging tools use already race the cost consumers used to pay per test, this is not a very good health recession savings strategy, specially with health care prices going to the roof, mandatory health care laws, consumer products, gas, and increase of unemployment.

Second, this over use of medical imaging like computed tomography, mammography, and magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, which are design to help Doctors to have a detail view of the inside of your body, elevates your exposure to radiation, which can increase cancer or other type of diseases in the American community. And this is something nobody ones.


Here is what Rebecca Smith-Bindman, which is an associate professor at the University or California-San Francisco, have to say:

"The average annual imaging cost per patient also nearly doubled, from $229 to $443, the team found.

Tests like CT and MRI, which offer stunning three-dimensional images of tissue and bone, are often used for such routine problems as respiratory infections, she said.

"The new technologies are fantastic," she said, "but they should be used judiciously.''

CT and MRI have joined the long list of tests given during a diagnostic work-up, according to her team's study of a decade-long record of almost 400,000 patients in a large Washington state health plan, published in Monday's issue of the journal Health Affairs. The results can be extrapolated to the rest of the nation, according to the team.

Medical imaging is the most costly type of health care technology and is one of health care's fastest-growing sectors, rising at three times the rate of other medical services, according to the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. Imaging is a powerful driving force behind the nation's soaring health care costs, second only to prescription drugs."

Also we need to add:

"Smith-Bindman's study, which looked at data from patients enrolled in the health maintenance plan called Group Health Cooperative, found that 13.5 percent of the study group had undergone a CT, MRI or both in 1997; by 2006 it was 21 percent. Study results showed the per-patient number of CT scans doubled over the 10 years, and the number of MRI scans tripled.

Imaging with conventional X-rays remained relatively stable — rather than declining, as expected. The results provide evidence that newer and more expensive technologies are being used as additions to the older tests, rather than acting as substitutes."

But, no everything is bad news, because we all need to remember that without this new technology Doctors wouldn't be able to find problems like cardiovascular disease, brain tumors, etc., so, we need this medical imaging tools, but it need to be use carefully.

Here is what supporters have to say:

"But what seems expensive and excessive may actually offer huge benefits, cautioned Stanford School of Medicine radiology Professor Geoffrey D. Rubin.

"If imaging resulted in a more expedient or accurate diagnosis leading to earlier or more appropriate treatment — then overall health care costs, time away from productive lives and jobs, and general quality of life could have substantially improved,'' Rubin said.

Using the study's logic, he said, the added cost of routinely installing air bags in cars would seem excessive "if we did not also know that air bags actually save lives.''

Imaging supporters say the radiation risk is small compared with a snapshot of deadly infection, troubling plaque on a heart vessel or blood clot in the lungs.

Imaging can actually cut costs and save lives, said Arl Van Moore of Charlotte, N.C., president of the American College of Radiology. Thirty years ago, a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer used to require open surgery; now a CT scan can find a mass. Mammograms have helped reduce breast cancer deaths, he said.

To reduce overuse, the American College of Radiology has created criteria to guide doctors so that "the right exam is done for the right reason,'' Van Moore said. "

Source: Mercury News.


Personally I don't like nothing that have radiation to touch or come close to my body, but the truth is that if I really need it then I have to be open minded about this.

What you think?


Here is a video that can give you an example of things that can go wrong, it great info right after the 10 second company details:


I hope you enjoy the video.

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