Medical Imaging in the 21st Century — Getting the Best Bang for the Rad

In the United States, the average radiation dose to which we are exposed has doubled in the past 30 years.1,2 The average dose from natural background sources has not changed, but what has changed is that there has been an increase by a factor of more than 6 in the average radiation dose from medical imaging.13 In 1980, medical imaging was responsible for only about 15% of the total radiation exposure to the U.S. population from all sources; now the proportion is about 50%.Up to 30% of the radiation exposure to the U.S. population that is associated . . .