Congressional Briefing on Reducing Cancer Exposure for Patients and Doctors

Apr 22, 2021 | News

Join us Virtually on Monday May 10, 2021 from 11am-12pm EST


This briefing is open to all, so please join us in learning about this health risk and in working together to improve safety for patients, doctors, and healthcare workers.




Speakers:
Matthew Eagleton, MD, FACS Chief, Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery; Co-Director, Fireman Vascular Center; Robert R. Linton Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School; Massachusetts General Hospital
Vikash Goel Inventor, Entrepreneur and Consultant, Cleveland Clinic & CTO of Centerline Biomedical, Inc.
Madhu K. Mohan, MD, FACP – NIH Trained Physician with Maryland Radioactive Materials License

While medical imaging procedures can improve outcomes and reduce patient recovery time as well as hospital stays, some of these procedures create preventable cancer risks for medical professionals and patients.

  • 7 out of 10 people who received healthcare services are exposed to cumulative radiation doses classified as high or very high each year, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. If this radiation came from any other kind of natural or artificial source, the EPA’s Protective Action Guides would recommend relocating the affected population.
  • 6-fold increase in radiation exposure was experienced by healthcare workers from 1980-2014 and across the U.S. – a 74% increase per capita in radiation exposure occurred from the early 1980s-2006 with nearly half of the exposures related to medical imaging.

Learn about how common this excessive and avoidable radiation exposure is; alternatives to remove this risk while providing high-quality patient care; FDA’s warning that patients and clinicians at times experience severe radiation-induced burns, increased occupational exposure and radiation-induced cancers linked to fluoroscopy and other procedures; and the CDC’s ALARA principle – “As Low As Reasonably Achievable.” This principle means that even if it is a small dose, if receiving that dose has no direct benefit, you should try to avoid it.

This briefing is open to all, so please join us in learning about this health risk and in working together to improve safety for patients, doctors, and healthcare workers.