EuroSafe Imaging Campaign Towards Patient Safety
The European Society of Radiology’s (ESR) launched in March 2014 at their Congress in Vienna the EuroSafe Imaging campaign. This campaign aims to ensure the highest quality and safety in the use of imaging procedures in Europe. With patients always put at the centre.
Imaging tests are detailed pictures of areas inside the body made via x-rays or ultrasound. They may be used to help diagnose disease, plan treatment, or find out how well treatment is working.
EuroSafe Imaging plans to contribute to the development of evidence based imaging referral guidelines, promote clinical audit tools and the use of up-to-date imaging equipment as well as training and education activities or better research collaboration.
This initiative emerged from the implementation of the ‘Bonn Call for Action’ to improve radiation protection in medicine issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2012.
Patients are targeted to be the ultimate beneficiaries of this project. There is a 12-point action plan that includes a commitment to improve information for and communication with patients. ESR trusts that enabling us to make more informed decisions about our own healthcare will lead to improved doctor-patient relationships, not to mention better and more targeted diagnosis and treatment.
Patient groups will play a key role in shaping the campaign itself through the Patient Advisory Group on Medical Imaging, which EPF chairs.
“We believe that patients throughout Europe deserve the best possible healthcare. This is why EuroSafe Imaging’s action plan includes the development and promotion of a clinical audit tool that seeks to ensure that justification – an assessment of the benefits and risks of any radiological procedure – becomes part of radiological practice everywhere. Harmonised imaging indicators and specific criteria for different imaging techniques will be promoted across Europe so that healthcare delivery will comply with equally high standards regardless of where treatment is sought” clarified Prof. Guy Frija, Director of EuroSafe Imaging and ESR Past-President.
By joining forces with a variety of stakeholders and decision-makers at the European level, EuroSafe Imaging aims to create a broad alliance that will contribute to establishing a patient-centred radiation safety culture in healthcare in Europe.
Want to support the EuroSafe Imaging campaign? Visit www.eurosafeimaging.org.
Contact: Nicola Bedlington, EPF Executive Director, nicola.bedlington@eu-patient.eu.
© ESR – Launch of the EuroSafe Imaging at the 2014 European Congress of Radiology in Vienna