Quality and Patient Safety in Medical Imaging: A Modality-Based Approach

This is a text that aims to explain the key technological, safety and quality control related features of radiography, fluoroscopy, CT, dental imaging, bone densitometry, MRI, ultrasound, breast imaging and nuclear medicine, each in an individual chapter.

There are many books like it, but each of these publications is an opportunity for the technological and equipment related aspects to be brought up to date, which is welcome in a fast-moving field. This book generally does this well, with each chapter featuring descriptions of the most up-to-date clinically available technology, processing techniques and, in particular, the current and likely future applications of AI.

While each chapter has a wide remit, there is little depth. The introduction states this is not the intention of the book and that the aim is only to provide a broad overview of the fundamental principles. There is a lengthy list of references with each chapter, with the intention that these will allow the reader to go into more depth on any specific topic as required. However, the references have a significant bias towards North America, and many excellent sources of information, including some from the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the International Atomic Energy Agency, are conspicuous in their absence. Regulatory controls are discussed solely in relation to the USA, which means some of the content in each chapter will not be correct or relevant to a reader from any other country.

Many of the chapters describe recent federal and (US-based) organisational efforts towards optimisation and safety, which share the same limitations as with regulatory controls.

There are some editorial peculiarities. Radiation dose and risk is explained in most chapters when it might have been better to include a single explanation of this and refer to it throughout. There is also repetition of efforts towards ALARA in North America (such as Image Gently) in most of the chapters, and units are sometimes presented as SI and sometimes as US conventional throughout the book.

The book lacks sufficient depth to be of use to all but trainee medical physicists. Medical professionals, radiographers and technologists may find the book useful, but for those based in the UK or Europe there are more relevant reference texts available.

To purchase this title at our discounted rate email: katherine@radmagazine.com.