Accoridng to a report published on Thursday, nearly  four million Americans a year under the age of 65 are exposed to high doses of radiation from medicine imaging tests.

The study, based off of information collected in a two-year survey from 2005 to 2007 by UnitedHealthcare, did not estimate the number of cancer cases that the high doses of radiation might cause in future years. However, Dr. Rita Redburg, a cardiologist and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, has studied the use of medical imaging and believes that the high doses of exposure will result in "tens of thousands of additional cancer" cases.

Of course, radioactive tests have their purposes in diagnostic medicine. But, ever since doctors and physicians were able to make money based off of the number of these images they could use (especially when they own their own diagnostic machine), some people are worried that patients are undergoing unnecessary diagnostic steps that not only put them in harms way of contracting cancer, but doesn't help in the diagnostic process.

MRI macihnes and the like are great in the medical field however, as payers and insurers and doctors, we need to ensure that we do not abuse their power. Setting up protocols based off of evidence-based medicine will help solidify the plan of actiont hat every doctor can take in the diagnostic process for a patient.

To read the full article in the New York Times and to get a link to the journal, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/health/research/27scan.html?ref=health