Health Affairs July 25, 2025
Each year, the US performs more than 93 million computed tomography (CT) scans, many of which offer limited clinical value. For patients with mild head injuries, CT scans are often ordered reflexively, even when validated tools suggest the risk of serious trauma is low. In most cases, the scan confirms what clinicians already suspect: There is no significant injury.
What remains is an expensive precaution that exposes patients to low-dose ionizing radiation. A typical head CT delivers about 1 to 2 mSv of radiation, which is equivalent to about six to eight months of natural background radiation exposure. While individual risk is low, routine overuse across the population contributes to more than 103,000 future cancer cases. To reduce unnecessary CT...
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