Manufacturers have promised to build new controls limiting the radiation doses that can be delivered by their medical imaging machines, after a recently announced regulatory crackdown.

The move comes amid increasing debate in America over the level of radiation the public is receiving from medical scans (see: Huge rise in US medical radiation doses).

Trade group the Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance (MITA) said it would make sure CT scanners issued alerts when recommended radiation dose levels were exceeded and that they would also ensure hospitals could set maximum doses that would prevent scanning at “hazardous levels of radiation that could lead to burns, hair loss or other injuries”.

While this is obviously commendable, cynics will point to the fact that the MITA’s hand was rather forced by the US Food and Drug Administration, which announced earlier this month that it would toughen up on the use of medical radiation, including the requiring new safeguards from equipment manufacturers. Yesterday’s announcement from the MITA comes before the FDA’s public meeting at the end of March to discuss what these requirements should be.

“Manufactures are already working on – or in some cases have already implemented – a version of these new patient safeguards and will be able to include them on new releases of CT products and to begin deploying them to currently installed CT systems before the end of this year,” says Dave Fisher, executive director of the alliance (press release).

The MITA had already announced “eight key principles” for reducing radiation doses. Also on the radiation front, the snowed-off hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Health subcommittee on this topic will finally take place today

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