The dosing checks, which are to be installed before the end of the year, will alert machine operators whenever the machine's settings exceed recommended levels. Each hospital and clinic will be able to preset the levels for their machines.
The announcement from the medical imaging industry's trade association comes two weeks after the Food and Drug Administration said it would begin working to prevent injury caused by excessive radiation scanning.
The agency says the average American's total radiation exposure has nearly doubled in the last three decades, largely due to next-generation imaging tests, such as CT scans.
In one study, which followed 100-thousand adults for 3 years, two-thirds of people had undergone tests using radiation. And those exposed them to twice as much radiation as they would have received, had they not undergone the tests.
Researchers recommend that the risks be taken into account when deciding if tests such as CAT scans and mammograms are needed for diagnosis.
