Doctors have to be more judicious while prescribing radiological investigations, former NIMS Director Kakarla Subba Rao has said.
Addressing reporters on the sidelines of the Continuing Medical Education (CME) programme conducted by the Vijayawada Chapter of the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA) at the NRI Academy of Sciences here on Sunday, Dr. Subba Rao said it was true there was a vast change in the disease profile of the people now.
Earlier, grievous diseases were mostly contagious infections that could be diagnosed clinically. But doctors should depend more on knowledge and experience for diagnosis than on radiological investigations, particularly in a poor country such as India, he said.
Doctors were depending more on radiological investigations in developed countries, but the patient was not burdened because of “third party” payments, Dr. Subba Rao said.
He said there was a need for the government to give exemption for radiological diagnostic equipment to reduce the cost of investigations in the country.
Medal presented
Earlier, Dr. Subba Rao presented a gold medal to Medwin Radiology Department head B. Rama Subba Reddy after he delivered the Prof. Kakarla Gold Medal Oration on ‘Opportunistic lung infections'. Dr. Reddy said that radiological investigations were helping early diagnosis of lung diseases, making it easier for pulmonologists to manage them.
Dr. Subba Rao spoke at the CME on ‘Vertebral column as marker for systemic Disease'.
Other experts spoke on different aspects of the diseases of the spinal cord, as the theme of the CME this year was ‘Vertebral column imaging'.
Interventional Radiologist from KIMS Ravi Verma spoke about the interventional procedures being used for ‘vertebroplasty'. Other radiologists V.N. Varaprasad spoke about ‘Evaluation of vertebral marrow', M.V. Chalapathi Rao spoke on ‘Congenital anomalies and anatomical variants of spine', V. Sandeep on ‘MRI — degenerative spine', T. Nageswara Rao on ‘Comprehensive imaging of spinal injuries', and V.S.V. Rammohan spoke on ‘Vertebral tumours'.
