From the November 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
HCB NEWS: Do you have a sense of personal responsibility and has that changed from when you started to this time in your career?
LMW: It’s always been more physician-driven than anything else. The shift I’m seeing is hospitals waking up. I started practicing 10 years ago, and there has been a gradual change over the last 10 years, but physicians still bear the greatest burden.
HCB NEWS: What is your perspective on real-time dosimetry in the discipline of minimally invasive vascular surgery?
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LMW: I knew right away when I saw real-time dosimetry that it would make a difference. That is why I got it right away. We have the numbers, and we see that it made a tremendous change. It also changed the camaraderie in the room, to where everyone is watching out for each other. That does something for morale. At the other hospital it is not implemented despite me trying; there has been no change. Real-time dosimetry is going to make the difference because you can see it. I see the difference every day.
HCB NEWS: What sort of basic safety features are used in the discipline, how does radiation dose monitoring add to this?
LMW: We have all the standard personal equipment, vests, shields, skull caps and lead googles. Radiation dose monitoring adds to this by encouraging people to be more diligent in using the equipment and more diligent in using patient and equipment positioning and coning.
Interview with Dr. Racadio:
HCB News: Tell us about your day-to-day, and how frequently you are using/being exposed to radiation.
Dr. John Racadio: Interventional radiologists who have a standard 5-day work week are exposed to radiation every day for the majority of each day. On call responsibilities add to the frequency of exposure. As chief of interventional radiology, I’m not in the interventional lab every day because of my administrative duties.
