In the medical world, the advent of the first high-tech imaging technology – the CT or computerized tomography scan, in the 1970s – was “like going from the Dark Ages into light,” a local specialist said.
“That was a momentous turning point in the history of medicine, in my opinion,” said Dr. John Johnston, interventional neuroradiologist and medical director for imaging at Parkridge Medical Center.
In many cases, no longer did patients have to be subjected to uncomfortable prodding and “exploratory surgeries” to figure out what was going on inside of them. CTs could provide a three-dimensional image of a patient’s body using an X-ray machine linked to a computer, allowing doctors to diagnose ailments less invasively than ever before.
But even for those who see the technology’s benefits, the proliferation of expensive high-tech scanning equipment in the United States, and the growing frequency of its use, is disconcerting.
In emergency rooms, the use of high-tech imaging scans – MRIs, CT or PET scans – has quadruped from 1996, to 14.2 percent of visits in 2007, according to data released in February from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.