By Dr MA Nassiri, Dr M Rouleau, Dr P Després
Several studies have linked an increase of lifetime risk of cancer to the radiation exposure in CT examinations. This has prompted many countries to take action and to consider CT exposure as a public health problem. The province of Québec (Canada) has created the Center of clinical expertise in radiation safety (Centre d’expertise clinique en radioprotection, CECR) to gather knowledge and communicate best practices related to the use of ionizing radiation in a medical context.
Since 2011, the CECR has conducted a province-wide tour of 180 CT installations in order to evaluate the performance CT scanners and to initiate, with local stakeholders, a CT dose optimization process.