During our emergency medicine rotations, we noticed that emergency department (ED) clinicians requested the largest volume of radiological investigations (both plain-film and cross-sectional) in the hospital. Many ED clinicians did not have a robust understanding of the amount of radiation exposure (and associated risk of inducing fatal malignancy) that was associated with these investigations and therefore, patients weren’t being adequately counselled.

We created a multiple-choice questionnaire that identified level of seniority amongst healthcare professionals in addition to assessing their level of knowledge regarding radiation dose exposure in common imaging modalities.

We distributed our questionnaire to ED doctors of all grades working within the ED, ranging from foundation year 2 (FY2) doctors to consultants. Subsequently, we hosted a short interactive tutorial on two separate occasions in the ED over a 3-day period in order to engage the largest proportion of initial survey respondents. Following this, we repeated the questionnaire.

Our study found that initially, ED doctors had limited awareness of the radiation exposure associated with the imaging modalities they routinely requested and also, minimal awareness of the associated risk of inducing fatal malignancy. As a result, they were unable to confidently counsel patients regarding this. Following our intervention, we found that all doctors, irrespective of grade, had increased awareness of radiation exposure associated with common imaging modalities and the associated risk of inducing fatal malignancy.

This will no doubt lead to better clinical reasoning, discussions with patients regarding risk of radiation and consequently, more patient-centred care.