Exposing exposure: automated anatomy-specific CT radiation exposure extraction for quality assurance and radiation monitoring.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

To develop and validate an informatics toolkit that extracts anatomy-specific computed tomography (CT) radiation exposure metrics (volume CT dose index and dose-length product) from existing digital image archives through optical character recognition of CT dose report screen captures (dose screens) combined with Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine attributes.

Materials and methods

This institutional review board-approved HIPAA-compliant study was performed in a large urban health care delivery network. Data were drawn from a random sample of CT encounters that occurred between 2000 and 2010; images from these encounters were contained within the enterprise image archive, which encompassed images obtained at an adult academic tertiary referral hospital and

SUBMITTER: Sodickson A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3422099 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature