The Image Gently ALARA CT summit on new CT technologies for children.

Abstract

Under the leadership of Drs. Marilyn J. Goske, Sjirk J. Westraand Donald P. Frush and Mr. Keith J. Strauss, and with theadministrative assistance of Ms. Angela Davis, the Alliance forRadiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging and the Society forPediatric Radiology organized the third ALARA CT meetingand second Image Gently CT meeting intoa singleconference,titled “The Image Gently ALARA CT Summit: How to UseNew CT Technologies for Children. ” The meeting, conductedin Orlando, FL, on Feb. 21–22, featured 21 course facultymembers (including 9 pediatric radiologists, 2 adult radiolo-gists, 8 medical imaging physicists, a pediatrician and a radio-logic technologist), who collectively presented 30 lectures.Highlights of the meeting included four non-commercialrapid-fire presentations that paired pediatric radiologists withmedical imaging physicists to discuss the advantages and disad-vantages of the four major CT vendors ’ equipment. More than140 attendees filled the conference room at the Hyatt RegencyOrlando International Airport hotel. Conference presentationswere divided into sections covering CT scanner operations,patient dose and potential risks, management of patient dose,quality improvement, and training and communication.The meeting provided an overview about why and when touse CT in children from a radiologist ’s perspective and wascomplementedbyapediatricemergencyroomphysician ’sview.The meeting paid particular attention to CTscanner operations.Detailed lectures on automatic exposure control and iterativereconstruction were included. The conference was rounded outwith a discussion of the challenges in the scientific fieldresulting from the lack of standardized nomenclature.Twosessionswerededicatedtothecomplexityofradiationdose, and updates were provided on the latest understandingabout radiation risk. A point–counterpoint session presentedthe challenges of pediatric protocol development and com-paredscanner-specificprotocolswithuniversalprotocols.Theconcept of optimizing image quality in relation to CT dosewas discussed. Individual dose tracking was also presented.The audience was introduced to the American College ofRadiology’s adult and pediatric dose index registries as a toolfor quality improvement in their practice.One session reviewed practical approaches to implementingquality improvement into pediatric CT practice. The last day ’sformal session presented the art of communication with parentsand referring providers. By including a pediatric emergencyroomspecialist, themeetingemphasized theimportanceofcom-munication among pediatric specialists in the care of children.The meeting was highly interact ive, with robust questions fromthe audience after each session.The“ImageGentlyALARACTSummit:HowtoUseNewCT Technologies for Children” provided an exciting andinformativeforum fortheaudiencetointeractwiththefacultyandcollectin-depthinformationaboutcurrenttopicsrelatedtoradiation safety as it applies to the practice of pediatric CT.This peer-reviewed supplement to the journal PediatricRadiology includes a summary of the presentations as reviewarticles. It is our hope that this supplement will allow thecontent of the meeting to reach a broad audience and willbenefit the readership and members of the Society forPediatric Radiology and beyond.