A Medical Device Daily

A meeting to address the issue of the overutilization of medical imaging will be held Aug. 6-7 in Washington, hosted by the American Board of Radiology Foundation (ABRF; Tucson, Arizona) in collaboration with American Board of Radiology (also Tucson) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health. Participation is by invitation only.

The sponsoring organizations say it is believed that almost one-third of imaging procedures are considered inappropriate and that nearly half, when evaluated retrospectively, are considered non-contributory to improved patient diagnosis and treatment.

Overutilization of imaging has been identified as contributing to excessive medical costs, especially in the pay-for-service U.S. healthcare. But overutilization of these procedures also means "enhanced risks to patients and burden of non-essential information that must be managed," according to ABRF.

The organization describes this meeting as a summit "to examine the root causes" of the overutilization of medical imaging.