The European Commission announced today that it will postpone and amend legislation that would pose a serious threat to the use of MRI in patient care and scientific research.
The European Commission announced today that it will postpone and amend legislation that would pose a serious threat to the use of MRI in patient care and scientific research.
The European Union EMF Directive, adopted by the European parliament in 2004 and set to become national law in April 2008, is to be delayed by four years until April 30, 2012. The delay will allow time for a substantive amendment to be adopted, according to a press release from the Alliance for MRI, a coalition of European parliamentarians, radiology societies and organizations, and patient groups
The future amendment will aim to ensure that limits will not have an adverse effect on the practice of MRI, according to the commission. The commission further recommended that member states stop any progress toward adopting of the current directive.
The legislation is aimed at protecting workers from harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation, such as that emitted by mobile phones and electrical power lines. If implemented, the directive would prevent healthcare staff from assisting or caring for patients during imaging.
It would mean that some patients who cannot be imaged without such tending - if they are young, elderly, frail, or confused - would either be denied imaging or have to undergo alternative procedures such as x-rays.
"MRI is a powerful, noninvasive, and safe diagnostic and research tool," said Dr. Gabriel Krestin, a leading member of the Alliance for MRI. "However, its application often relies crucially on the presence of a healthcare worker or researcher. If the European Commission legislation were implemented, it would almost certainly impact on patient welfare and be a major setback for scientific research, denying patients innovative treatments in the future."
Krestin said the Alliance looks forward to working with the European Commission to amend the directive and that any new legislation must be evidence-based and founded on sound science.
For more from the Diagnostic Imaging archives:
Commission poised to delay rule that could suffocate MRI use in Europe
Europeans scramble to thwart threshold law for electromagnetics
Emerging AI Algorithm Shows Promise for Abbreviated Breast MRI in Multicenter Study
April 25th 2025An artificial intelligence algorithm for dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MRI offered a 93.9 percent AUC for breast cancer detection, and a 92.3 percent sensitivity in BI-RADS 3 cases, according to new research presented at the Society for Breast Imaging (SBI) conference.
Could AI-Powered Abbreviated MRI Reinvent Detection for Structural Abnormalities of the Knee?
April 24th 2025Employing deep learning image reconstruction, parallel imaging and multi-slice acceleration in a sub-five-minute 3T knee MRI, researchers noted 100 percent sensitivity and 99 percent specificity for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.
New bpMRI Study Suggests AI Offers Comparable Results to Radiologists for PCa Detection
April 15th 2025Demonstrating no significant difference with radiologist detection of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa), a biparametric MRI-based AI model provided an 88.4 percent sensitivity rate in a recent study.