The Medical Freedom Channel

“Dr. David Bor, chief of medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance, had been concerned for years about the financial cost of the rampant use of CT scans. But several months ago, after a conversation with the system’s head of radiology, he started to worry about another kind of cost: radiation exposure to patients. Bor sent a memo to 150 doctors in his department in June, warning them about overreliance on CT scans and about the potential risk to patients; he recently invited in a radiation specialist to educate physicians; and he has altered his medical practice. Bor said, for example, that he no longer automatically orders a CT scan to diagnose abdominal pain in a patient with previous bouts of kidney stones. ‘I am much more likely to suggest they have an ultrasound,’ which is harder to interpret but does not emit radiation, he said. ‘I’m much more vigilant about it now.’” (11/26/07)http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2007/11/26/radiation_risk/