Safety Culture in the News

Safety Culture in the News

MRI safety survey finds two-thirds of incidents go unreported

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July 28, 2021 – A new study from Sweden has shown that MRI-related incidents tend to be greatly underreported. The authors warn that some unreported incidents may have catastrophic outcomes, and a major educational effort is urgently required.

“To enhance the safety culture across all sites, more easily accessible education is needed,” the authors wrote in an article published by European Radiology on 20 July. “Broadening collaboration among radiographers, radiologists, and MR physicists will also enhance the safety work.”

The researchers, led by Johan Kihlberg, PhD, a specialist radiographer at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) in Linköping, interviewed staff at 13 sites across Sweden about the level of MR safety and MR-related incidents. They used a semi-structured questionnaire. The reporting rate of incidents was very low (38%), suggesting that about 100 incidents remained unreported.