According to the American College of Radiology, an estimated 68 million Computed Tomography (CT) scans are performed in the United States each year. CT imaging makes it possible to see inside the body to help diagnose a variety of medical conditions, from determining if a child has a head injury from an accident during soccer practice to imaging the liver or kidneys to help physicians accurately diagnose disease.
The issue of managing “dose”—or the effort to minimize radiation exposure in CT imaging—has received a lot of attention in recent years, and is an area of interest for clinicians, patients and manufacturers alike.
Many providers, and even consumers, are now aware of low-dose technologies, such as CT systems that enable high quality images with low radiation. Today, a growing number of hospitals are also adopting monitoring technology that takes dose management to the next level.
Working to continually meet the needs of the nation’s healthcare providers, GE Healthcare offers DoseWatch*, a radiation dose-tracking and reporting solution that can help facilities analyze patient exposure levels over time to ensure “as low as reasonably achievable radiation” use, or the ALARA principle.
Recently,Harnett Health in Dunn, N.C. and Nash General Hospital in Rocky Mount, N.C., announced adoption of DoseWatch. Harnett Health is a private, not-for-profit system and includes Betsy Johnson Hospital, a 101-bed hospital, and Central Harnett Hospital, a new 50-bed facility with plans to expand in the future. Nash General Hospital is a 280-bed acute care facility.
Each site will use data captured by DoseWatch to identify outliers in radiation dose in imaging procedures in order to standardize and optimize protocols. Long-time leaders in patient safety and quality care, Harnett Health and Nash join a growing numbers of hospitals adopting DoseWatch in the United States, and are helping to pioneer dose optimization and low-dose imaging.
DoseWatch enables healthcare providers to track and evaluate dose levels on radiation emitting diagnostic and screening procedures. Providers can generate statistical analyses based on device, operator or protocol. By identifying areas of variation, hospitals can change how dose is administered to maximize effective, and safe, diagnostic imaging.
Additionally, GE experts will leverage data from DoseWatch for use in best practices training to help clinical staff at Harnett Health, Nash and other leading hospitals to further optimize dose organization-wide. DoseWatch supplements existing dose awareness technologies and can be used with equipment from various vendors.
“DoseWatch offers providers exceptional visibility into radiation levels and imaging practices—in their own facilities, with their own data,” said Mike Finnegan, GE Healthcare’s Commercial Leader for Dose Services. “Harnett Health and Nash General Hospital are leading the way in dose management by leveraging low-dose CT technology, evaluating dose levels, and further optimizing dose based on comprehensive tools and data.”
DoseWatch is part of the GE Blueprint for low dose, a comprehensive program that helps healthcare providers integrate CT technologies, education and process improvements, and data analysis to reduce patient radiation dose from Computed Tomography (CT) by up to 50 percent**.
Harnett Health and Nash General join more than 100 installations of DoseWatch around the globe to date.