Why does demand for medical imaging keep rising?

Demand for medical imaging is rising at a faster rate than most other aspects of healthcare and at a speed with which NHS radiology services cannot currently cope.1 We radiologists must accept some responsibility for this ourselves—as technological advances result in ever more detailed images, we identify more and more findings of uncertain significance and we frequently choose to resolve this uncertainty by proposing further imaging. Many of these findings will turn out to be of no consequence. The greater part of the increase in demand, however, is attributable to developments elsewhere in clinical practice.Some specific examples come to mind. The greater range of therapeutic options now available to treat most forms of cancer and the increasing survival of patients with this condition bring a need for more frequent and more prolonged monitoring of the response to treatment, which often involves imaging. A series of national reports and guidelines in…
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