Recently, I told you about “More Fisticuffs with X-ray Doctors.” A radiologic advocacy group posted an inflammatory response to a recent National Council on Radiation Protection report entitled “Increased Average Radiation Exposure of the U.S. Population Requires Perspective and Caution.” The commentary was a pure economic and political piece which proposed non-radiologists who self-refer are responsible for egregious cost increases, inappropriate care, and the increased radiation risks of the U.S. population! ACC submitted a factual, evidenced based rebuttal, authored by President Doug Weaver and ACC Imaging Council Chair Kim Williams for posting on the NCRP site. They promptly took down the offensive radiology piece; but they didn’t put ours up! This is a victory of sorts, given that the NCRP board is mainly radiology oriented. We will release ours as a press release if we see this appear anywhere else. We also contacted the NCRP staff, and I believe they understand that we mean business here. More coverage of this issue is now available on CVN.

Note -- despite this unfortunate incident, the ACC and the ACR will continue to stay on the high road together, and work to use “appropriate use criteria” and science to reduce unnecessary imaging and radiation exposure.