Medical imaging and informed consent - Can radiographers and patients agree upon a realistic best practice?

INTRODUCTION: For radiographers, gaining informed consent with our patients represents a challenging undertaking. Reconciling the need to gain meaningful consent with time pressures represents one challenge, as does differing expectations of how risk communication should be undertaken. Different methods and thresholds of risk disclosure are considered, with the aim of finding a realistic best practice.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study of radiographers and members of the public was undertaken. Participants were asked their preferences for how they would like to receive ionising radiation risk information. This included the health care professional(s) most suited to provide the information, the media through which the information was delivered, and the technique for delivering the information. In addition, participants were asked to consider hypothetical scenarios in which they were a patient receiving an ionising radiation examination, and to give the threshold of ionising radiation cancer risk which they would consider material. These scenarios considered variations in the cancer-onset time, and the accuracy of the test.

RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-one (121) radiographer participants and one hundred and seventy two (172) members of the public met the inclusion criteria and completed the survey. There was strong agreement in the most appropriate media, and person, to disclose risk, as well as what represents a significant risk. There was considerable agreement in risk delivery technique. However, some of the agreed-upon strategies may be challenging to achieve in clinical practice.

CONCLUSION: Radiographers and patients fundamentally agree upon risk communication strategies, but implementing some strategies may prove clinically challenging.