Image Wisely Initiates New Annual Pledge Process

Commitment to Promote Safety in Medical Imaging Required Yearly

RESTON, Va. — Image Wisely participants must now make yearly commitments, as opposed to a one-time pledge, confirming their ongoing dedication to safety in medical imaging.

"Requiring an annual Image Wisely pledge reinforces the solid commitment to eliminate unnecessary imaging exams and to only use the amount of radiation necessary to produce the image quality needed for the diagnostic imaging task," said Richard L. Morin, PhD, FACR, FAAPM, co-chair of the Image Wisely Executive Committee and American College of Radiology (ACR) representative.

All individual pledges and associations/educational program pledges made before Jan. 1, 2016, will expire at the end of this year. Another change is that the pledge for facilities has been strengthened to make it more meaningful. Now, only one pledge option is available — facilities must be accredited and participate in a dose index registry in order to pledge. Facilities that had pledged to all three levels of the old version of the pledge will not have to re-pledge until 2017. All other facilities must take the new pledge in order to retain their Image Wisely Honor Roll status. New dated downloadable logos are being issued with this year's pledges.

"While the benefits of medical imaging are well known, there are concerns about the radiation dose associated with imaging techniques, such as computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine procedures, fluoroscopy and radiography," said William W. Mayo-Smith, MD, FACR, Executive Committee co-chair and Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) representative. "Image Wisely asks stakeholders to actually commit — by pledging support and using the radiation safety resources and free educational content on its website," he added, noting that more than 40,000 individuals and facilities are currently participating.

The Image Wisely website provides resources for radiologists, medical physicists and technologists who provide medical imaging care within the United States and for consumers of medical imaging care, including referring physicians and patients. Pledge takers are encouraged to send their patients to the website where they can learn about radiology benefits and risks.

Image Wisely is an initiative of the ACR, the Radiological Society of North America, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the American Society of Radiologic Technologists. Radiologists, medical physicists and imaging technologists, as champions for the safe and effective use of radiation in medical imaging, recognized the need to promote these concepts to both the profession and the public and for the incorporation of dose optimization into all imaging practices. View the honor roll of facilities and associations/educational programs that have pledged.

To speak with an Image Wisely spokesperson, contact Shawn Farley at 703-869-0292, Maryann Verrillo at 703-390-9822 or PR@acr.org.