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Medical Imaging specialists at Lurie Children’s Hospital tell parents to know their child’s radiation dose. -
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A PET/CT scanner is used to detect cancer and neurological diseases. -
A CT scanner with the latest technology allowing us to reduce sedation rates.
THE LAST TIME YOUR CHILD HAD A CT SCAN – DID YOU KNOW WHAT THE RADIATION DOSE WAS?
Medical Imaging Specialists at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago advise parents to ask your doctor that question
“Many children’s hospitals advertise low dose, but what does that mean,” said James Donaldson, MD, Head of the Medical Imaging Department at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. “There is no imaging equipment specifically for children so we employ three full-time physicists that monitor the radiation dose used for each procedure. We are then able to balance minimum radiation dose with maximum image quality for every child in our care.”
Lurie Children’s is one of a handful of children’s hospitals nationwide to have full-time physicists on staff. Most hospitals have contracted physicists and are unable to provide the same level of oversight as a full-time team. Lurie Children’s is also part the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging called Image Gently -- a coalition of health care organizations that provide safe, high quality pediatric imaging and work with the medical community to teach them that children should receive lower doses of radiation than adults.
Donaldson advises parents to not be shy and to ask their provider two simple questions – 1) are there physicists on staff and 2) is the hospital participating in the Image Gently campaign?
Christina Sammet, Ph.D., one of the medical physicists at Lurie Children’s, provides constant oversight of the imaging equipment. “Children are much more sensitive to radiation because they are growing. Their cells are dividing faster and they require a careful approach to imaging,” said Sammet. “Children often come to our department with CT scans from another hospital that show that they were given higher doses of radiation than necessary. It is our job to educate parents and the medical community that the use of radiation in pediatric imaging should be kept as low as reasonably achievable.”
Lurie Children’s is one of the top children’s hospitals in the country according to USNews & World Report. It is the pediatric teaching ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and one of only a handful of U.S. children’s hospitals with a dedicated pediatric research center. Its Medical Imaging Department performs more than 115,000 procedures a year, and is one of the largest programs in the Midwest.
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