By David Fisher
This report originally appeared in the October 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News

Medical imaging manufacturers are in the business of saving lives.

This philosophy is at the core of our mission – ensuring that the woman with the lump in her breast will be able to get back to work and the father with the pre-cancerous polyp will live to see his daughter get married.

The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) is the leader in medical imaging and radiation therapy technologies that allow this to happen. We develop products that have revolutionized health care delivery in America by helping patients avoid or limit more invasive procedures, and return to their families, lives and work more quickly.

As part of our mission, MITA is acutely aware of the growing concern for patient exposure to radiation from medical imaging procedures. That’s why MITA and its more than 50 member companies are proactive in developing and advocating for solutions that will reduce exposure to radiation dose while continually improving technology to aid physicians in turning patients into survivors.

This forward-looking thinking is critically important because the stakes are high. Peer-reviewed research confirms that these medical technologies save lives and drastically improve health outcomes, making these advanced technologies fundamental to standards of care. And the proof is in the numbers.

Increased regular mammography screenings resulted in a 24 percent decrease in the death rate from breast cancer between 1990 and 2004. According to the American Cancer Society, if detected early, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer now exceeds 95 percent. Increased utilization of advanced medical imaging, such as CT and MRI, between 1991 and 2004 improved life expectancy by 0.62 to 0.71 years. And for all cancers, physicians have reported that PET scanning allowed them to avoid additional tests or procedures 77 percent of the time.

Furthermore, radiation therapy offers highly personalized, noninvasive and cost-effective care for up to 60 percent of all diagnosed cancer patients in the United States. That translates to approximately 650,000 Americans each year who are able to fight their cancer.

But beyond the life-saving impact of medical imaging, researchers have also found that it saves money in the long-run.

For example, a 2005 study published in Radiology, states every $1 spent on inpatient imaging correlates to approximately $3 in total savings, and according to researchers at Harvard Medical School, every $385 spent on imaging decreases a patient’s hospital stay by one day, saving approximately $3,000 per patient.

Other disease-specific studies, such as the one published in the 2007 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology looking att multi-slice coronary CT for evaluating acute chest pain, found that increased imaging could save up to $1.2 billion annually in the treatment of stroke patients. Additionally, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, CT scans have been found to significantly reduce the negative appendectomy rate and the number of unnecessary hospital admissions, saving $447 per patient since 1998.

We are proud of the industry’s accomplishments. But MITA recognizes the need to build on these successes and continuously seek innovations in our products that maximize effectiveness while minimizing risk to the patient.

In fact, industry innovations to medical imaging technologies over the past 20 years have reduced radiation doses for many procedures by up to 75 percent, while continually improving the ability of these technologies to aid physicians in diagnosing and treating disease.

Additionally, underlying the equipment innovations – which are reflective of broader changes in CT, X-ray and other radiation-emitting imaging technologies across the industry—is the industry’s support and commitment to the "as low as reasonably achievable" or ALARA principle.

The medical imaging community is committed to working both internally and with physicians, other providers, governmental agencies and patients to ensure appropriate safety assurances are met, or exceeded; training requirements are met, or exceeded; and reporting of adverse events is done in a transparent and timely manner.

Specifically, MITA endorses:

-Expanding and integrating appropriateness criteria into physician decision making.
-Creating a national dosage registry to ensure longitudinal tracking of dose levels for patients across America.
-Adopting a standardized method of storing of diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy information within electronic health records.
-Exploring the expansion of mandatory accreditation for advanced imaging facilities.
-Establishing minimum standards for training and education for hospital and imaging facility personnel who perform medical imaging exams and deliver radiation therapy treatments.
-Developing enhanced operational safety procedures and checklists to reduce medical errors.
-Expanding and standardizing the reporting of medical errors associated with medical radiation across stakeholders in a manner that is transparent for patients, families and physicians.
-Working with stakeholders to develop radiation dose reference values to provide a data point to compare the dose level of a specific procedure. MITA commits to working with other stakeholders to develop the most appropriate way to incorporate this information into manufacturers’ technology.

These important principles guide our innovation and thinking to ensure patients receive the best care possible. Patient lives rest in our hands, and therefore safety and effectiveness are at the core of our mission. We continue to be at the leading-edge of research and technology advancements, looking for ways to build on our successes and improve outcomes.

David Fisher is the executive director for the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance.