Over the last three decades, the number of medical imaging procedures performed annually in the United States has grown substantially. A dossier released by St. Jude Medical in 2015 concluded that conventional fluoroscopy navigation systems result in substantial radiation exposure to patients, physicians, and staff. Physicians and staff are at increased risk due to the cumulative effects of repeated radiation exposure.

The dossier postulated that it is conceivable that purchasers of health technology such as medical imaging systems will need to compare cost, clinical utility, and the net health impact on patients and staff as part of their value-based purchasing and comparative effectiveness goals. This is increasingly true today and will be even more so with the increasing use of medical imaging.

This is a strong point – that there is more to the total cost of medical imaging systems than the price paid on an invoice. There is clearly an added financial burden for hospitals as physicians must limit their annual radiation exposure. What is the cost to a hospital when a physician cannot perform procedures because they have reached a given radiation exposure level? Is that lost revenue not attributed to the cost of an imaging system?

Medical personnel are clearly at risk due to the high number of procedures they perform each year. Patients too are at risk – especially when they are required to have several imaging procedures performed.

It’s important to note that there is an increasing societal need for facilities and care providers to minimize radiation exposure as much as is possible. How can these reductions be achieved – especially with the rising use of imaging procedures?

One proven solution is to reduce the amount of radiation exposure during interventional procedures. This can be achieved using technology that auto collimates to the region of interest (ROI) and delivers up to 84% additional radiation exposure reduction to patients and staff without losing image quality. How much is that reduction worth to a hospital – to the total cost of a medical imaging system? An imaging system that dramatically reduces radiation exposure levels and its effects and limits the risk of losing physician procedure time? What is your current medical imaging system really costing you?