Diagnostic imaging pathways are developed to ensure that medical imaging examinations are appropriately selected and referred by clinicians with the aim of justifying the use of imaging modalities for clinical diagnosis. Failing to comply with the imaging pathways or guidelines results in exposing patients to unnecessary ionising radiation due to malpractice of imaging referrals. This editorial provides a comment on a recent study reporting very high percentage of general x-ray imaging referrals which did not or partially met the imaging pathways in an emergency department.
© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy and New Zealand Institute of Medical Radiation Technology.