The Image Wisely® Campaign, officially launched at the 2010 annual meeting of the RSNA, aims to raise awareness about medical radiation and provide educational resources for radiology professionals, referring clinicians, manufacturers, and patients about adult radiology examinations. Its website became operational in 2011, providing easy access to useful information and other resources.
What the campaign has achieved since its inception is described in an article, "Image Wisely: Reflections of a Former Co-Chair", written by William W. Mayo-Smith, MD, FACR and published online by the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Dr. Mayo-Smith served as co-chair of the Image Wisely Executive Committee, together with Richard L. Morin.
For instance, the campaign now requires participants to make yearly commitments, as opposed to a one-time pledge, confirming their ongoing dedication to safety in medical imaging. This has also been expanded from imaging professionals to now include both imaging facilities and associations.
Fifty-two thousand individuals had pledged as of 2016 – made by clicking a formal link found on the Image Wisely website. The switch to annual pledges (resetting to zero in January every year) is intended to promote frequent website visits. The majority of pledgers are technologists in the United States, but there is also an international presence, notes Dr. Mayo-Smith.
Other key features of the Image Wisely website include the following:
• Modality-specific (CT, nuclear medicine, and fluoroscopy) information including links to vendor microsites for model-specific imaging protocols.
• Popular radiation safety cases for technologist, physician, and medical physicist credit.
• Direct links to RSNA scientific posters addressing radiation exposure that have been vetted by the Image Wisely executive committee.
• Links to three categories of the literature: “News,” “What We’re Reading,” and “Regulation and Standards Updates.”
An "exciting activity" that Image Wisely promoted was participation in the ACR’s Dose Index Registry, according to the author. The registry allows facilities to automatically anonymise and download their radiation exposure information to a national database and compare their doses with those of other institutions. As of July 2017, there were more than 1,900 active facilities registering more than 45 million examinations. These data have been useful to develop U.S. diagnostic reference levels for CT examinations, the author points out.
Image Wisely collaborates with its sister society, Image Gently for children, as well as with newer global radiation safety campaigns, including EuroSafe, AfroSafe, Canada Safe Imaging, Latin Safe, Arab Safe, and Japan Safe Radiology. Joint special focus sessions with these international societies have been presented at the 2016 and 2017 RSNA scientific assemblies.
"The accomplishments of the Image Wisely initiative are impressive given that it was launched only eight years ago. There is high name recognition and website traffic, which promotes continued awareness of adult radiation safety," writes Dr. Mayo-Smith. "I am honoured to have served as the RSNA co-chair of Image Wisely, working with ACR co-chair Richard Morin, PhD, FACR."
Source: Journal of the American College of Radiology
Image Credit: Imagewisely.org
References:
William W. Mayo-Smith (2018) Image Wisely: Reflections of a Former Co-Chair. J Am Coll Radiol. Published online March 22, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2018.01.027
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RSNA, medical imaging, radiation exposure, The Image Wisely® Campaign
The Image Wisely® Campaign, officially launched at the 2010 annual meeting of the RSNA, aims to raise awareness about medical radiation and provide educational resources for radiology professionals, referring clinicians, manufacturers, and patients.
