With ongoing debates about inappropriate CT scan use, hospitals are using inexpensive CT scanners on smokers to screen for lung cancer, Kaiser Health News and The Washington Post report. Hospitals--including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center in Denver, Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, and Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in California--found that using the low-cost scans on high-risk patients (smokers) could cut mortality rates by 20 percent by detecting the disease earlier than standard X-rays.
Other reports have revealed imaging tests to be controversial, sometimes inappropriately used and racking up high costs for the institution and the patient.