ArticleBMC medical imaging2022
Characterizing and quantifying low-value diagnostic imaging internationally: a scoping review.
Article in BMC medical imaging, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance recommendations toward environmentally sustainable cardiovascular magnetic resonance.Journal of cardiovascular magnetic resonance : official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance · 2025Guideline
- Impact and effect of imaging referral guidelines on patients and radiology services: a systematic review.European radiology · 2025Pooled it
- Overutilization of head computed tomography in cases of mild traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Emergency radiology · 2024Pooled it
- Cost of Low-Value Imaging Worldwide: A Systematic Review.Applied health economics and health policy · 2024Pooled it
- Integrated e-Learning for Shoulder Anatomy and Clinical Examination Skills in First-Year Medical Students: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR medical education · 2025Trial
- Variations in general practitioners' referrals to low-value MRI examinations in Norway: A nationwide register-based study.The European journal of general practice · 2026Article
- Cultivating Environmentally Sustainable Emergency Departments with GreenED.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Cultural bias in large language models' ability to follow neuroradiology guidelines.European radiology · 2026Article
- Emergency physicians' perceptions and optimization strategies for diagnostic imaging overuse in Somalia.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Cost of chemotherapy-related care for breast cancer care: evidence and implications from a provider perspective at a public tertiary hospital in South Africa.Health economics review · 2026Article
- Diffuse cystic lung diseases-a primer for radiologists.BJR open · 2026Review
- Addressing the overuse-underuse paradox in healthcare.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2025Article
- Temporal and geographical variations of chest x-rays: A ten-year register study from Norway.Acta radiologica open · 2025Article
- Temporal and geographical variations in musculoskeletal imaging: a register-based study in Norway with focus on potential low-value imaging.Research in health services & regions · 2025Article
- The carbon footprint of modern imaging.Current opinion in urology · 2025Review
- Positivity rates and subsequent patient dispositions after utilisation of cervical spine imaging referral guidelines in Singapore.Insights into imaging · 2025Article
- Evaluating acute image ordering for real-world patient cases via language model alignment with radiological guidelines.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Implementation of a multicomponent intervention including clinical decision support (CDS), e-course and feedback to improve general practitioners' radiology referrals: a feasibility study and study protocol.BMJ open quality · 2025Article
- Facilitators and barriers to deferring imaging for acute low back pain: a qualitative study.BMC primary care · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInappropriate and wasteful use of health care resources is a common problem, constituting 10-34% of health services spending in the western world. Even though diagnostic imaging is vital for identifying correct diagnoses and administrating the right treatment, low-value imaging-in which the diagnostic test confers little to no clinical benefit-is common and contributes to inappropriate and wasteful use of health care resources. There is a lack of knowledge on the types and extent of low-value imaging. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to identify, characterize, and quantify the extent of low-value diagnostic imaging examinations for adults and children.
methodsA scoping review of the published literature was performed. Medline-Ovid, Embase-Ovid, Scopus, and Cochrane Library were searched for studies published from 2010 to September 2020. The search strategy was built from medical subject headings (Mesh) for Diagnostic imaging/Radiology OR Health service misuse/Medical overuse OR Procedures and Techniques Utilization/Facilities and Services Utilization. Articles in English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian were included.
resultsA total of 39,986 records were identified and, of these, 370 studies were included in the final synthesis. Eighty-four low-value imaging examinations were identified. Imaging of atraumatic pain, routine imaging in minor head injury, trauma, thrombosis, urolithiasis, after thoracic interventions, fracture follow-up and cancer staging/follow-up were the most frequently identified low-value imaging examinations. The proportion of low-value imaging varied between 2 and 100% inappropriate or unnecessary examinations.
conclusionsA comprehensive list of identified low-value radiological examinations for both adults and children are presented. Future research should focus on reasons for low-value imaging utilization and interventions to reduce the use of low-value imaging internationally. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO: CRD42020208072.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.