From: Clinicians’ justification of imaging: do radiation issues play a role?
Questions | Response categories |
---|---|
To what extent are the listed factors important when you refer a patient for imaging? | Weighting of importance 1–6; 1 = very important, 6 = not important |
Radiation dose to patient | |
Patient’s wish | |
Impact on diagnosis | |
Impact on treatment | |
Impact on patient’s future health | |
Do you know of imaging referral guidelines where referrers can seek information on which investigations are indicated for which conditions? | Yes/no |
Have you ever used such referral guidelines? | Yes/no |
Do you refer patients for imaging in cases when you consider it most unlikely that the imaging results will affect treatment of the patient? | Yes/no |
If yes, what is the proportion of such referrals among all your referrals (circa)? | 1%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50% |
What are the reasons why you may refer when the imaging results most likely will not affect treatment? Please weight the listed reasons | Weighting of importance 1–4; 1 = very important, 4 = not important |
Patient expectations | |
Give the patient the feeling of being taken seriously | |
Lack of time, “get the patient out of the office”, discharge the patient | |
Expectations from relatives | |
Compensate for insufficient clinical examination | |
Normal findings will reassure the patient | |
Please estimate the effective dose of the listed imaging procedures, compared to a chest x-ray (front and side projection). Please put a mark, even if you are uncertaina | Corresponding numbers of chest x-rays (front and side projection): 0–1, 1–10, 10–50, 50–200 |
Cerebral CT | |
Pelvic radiography | |
Cerebral MRI | |
Intravenous pyelography | |
Chest CT | |
Barium meal fluoroscopy | |
Barium enema | |
Abdominal CT | |
Kidney ultrasound | |
Thoracic spine radiography | |
Sinus x-ray | |
Sinus CT | |
We ask you to rank the contributors to the mean effective radiation dose for a Norwegian in 2006 | Rank, 1 = largest contributor, 5 = smallest contributor |
Medical imaging | |
Radon in homes | |
Background gamma radiation | |
Pollution from Sellafield in England | |
Pollution from the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident | |
Detrimental effects of radiation are divided into deterministic and stochastic effects. Are you familiar with these terms? If yes, go to next question | Yes/no |
This is a list of potential detrimental effects of radiation. Please mark whether you think these effects are stochastic or deterministic (one mark per effect) | Stochastic/deterministic |
Leukaemia | |
Infertility | |
Foetus abnormalities | |
Genetic adverse effects | |
Cataract | |
Lung cancer |