Radiation from X-rays can be dangerous. Most at risk are the doctors and nurses that do the x-rays. This is because they are exposed for a prolonged periods of time as well as repetitive exposure. One study shows that most surgeons are exposed to their lifetime of safe exposure within their first ten years of practice. Dr. Juan Uribe, who is the Professor of Neurosurgery at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix says that although the amount of radiation that is transmitted in a single x-ray is very minimal, any exposure at all increases the potential for cancer or other issues related to cancer like hair loss. For the patient that needs several surgeries the risk is also really high.
Barrow has begun using a technology that was developed by a doctor at Duke University that reduces this risk by up to fifty percent. This technology uses a both hardware in a computer and algorithms in the software. One other advantage is the fact that while the radiation exposure is minimized, the quality of the x-rays is not compromised. This is very important because the doctors use the x-rays to help in diagnosis. With this technology, the patient needs fewer x-rays than before. Barrow is committed to find protecting both the patient and the Health care personnel against these dangers.
