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Title: CT scanning, Cancer risk, and Administrative efforts

Category: Administration

Keywords: CT scanning, cancer risk, administration, EMR, diagnostic algorithms (PubMed Search)

Posted: 4/23/2025 by Steve Schenkel, MPP, MD (Updated: 3/3/2026)

You may have seen the headline.

93 million CT examinations conducted on 62 million US patients in 2023 projected to lead to 103000 new cancer diagnoses accounting for 5% of new cancers.

The details of the modeling can be found here, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2832778.

What does this have to do with administration? 

The solutions rely on administrative involvement:

  • Incorporation of readily available and easily used diagnostic algorithms at the point of care (which means well-integrated with the electronic medical record).
  • Ready availability of alternative diagnostic approaches such as ultrasound and MRI.
  • Implementation of low-dose scanning techniques along with shared awareness that such techniques are being used.
  • Support for shared decision making with patients and families.

There’s an editorial here, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2832782 and a commentary with interviews that put the findings nicely in context here https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/04/ct-scans-could-cause-5-of-cancers-study-finds-experts-note-uncertainty/ (including pointing out that lifetime risk of cancer in the US is 40% and the increase from CT scanning on the order of 0.1% / scan).

References

Smith-Bindman R, Chu PW, Firdaus HA, et al. Projected lifetime cancer risks from current computed tomography imaging. JAMA Intern Med 2025;  doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.0505.