Rebecca Smith-Bindman, MD:
Increase Radiation Exposure Study

June 12, 2012

Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman's study on the growth of the use of imaging studies and its increase in exposure to radiation in integrated health care systems was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).  She has been featured on the UCSF News page.

Rebecca Smith-Bindman, MD, is a professor at the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. Dr. Smith-Bindman is director of the Radiology Outcomes Research Laboratory (RORL) and her research focuses primarily on ways to increase the benefits and minimize the harms of widely used screening and diagnostic imaging tests. A principal objective of the research is to provide rigorous evidence of the value of testing so that clinicians and health policy-makers can make informed recommendations to the public about when and how to use such tests. Current research focuses on mammography screening; assessment of ways to standardize the interpretation of ultrasound to reduce false positive examinations; the quantification of the radiation associated with medical imaging and associated risk of cancer from these examinations; and efforts to standardize and reduce the radiation from common imaging examinations to minimize patients exposure to ionizing radiation from medical imaging.

For more information, please visit:

• The Radiology Outcomes Research Lab website
• Radiation Safety at UCSF