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RE: free speech
Bill,
Of course you have the confounding factor that some test are done even if
they do not provide any useful information. In medicine, you often
determine what the problem is based on ruling everything else out. And then
there is the problem of "if we don't do the test, we could be sued if we
missing something." Radiation risk are not factored into the risk analysis,
except in human research studies.
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
3050 Traymore Lane
Bowie, MD 20715-2024
E-mail: jenday1@email.msn.com (H)
-----Original Message-----
From: William Prestwich [mailto:prestwic@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca]
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 1:40 PM
To: Michael Stabin
Cc: Jacobus, John (OD/ORS); RadSafe
Subject: Re: free speech
Perhaps it is possible to analyze the situation generically. Whether it is
explicitly quantified or not, I think it is fair to assign as a figure of
merit for a diagnostic procedure the ratio of the information gained about
the state of the patient to the risk to the patient of performing the
procedure. In those procedures involving radiation the risk is related to
the equivalent dose. If for any reason this risk is overestimated, then
the figure of merit of the procedure is incorrectly assessed as being
lower than it actually is. For this reason, exaggerated claims of risk,
and models adopted solely for regulatory convenience, if they are also
incorrect and biased high can potentially harm innocent people by leading
to incorrect conclusions on the part of the medical practitioners.
Bill Prestwich
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