Comprehensively scaling up radiology resources across the planet—coupled with investments in treatment and quality—could save some 9.55 million lives over the next decade, global imaging experts charged on Thursday.
The finding is part of a groundbreaking new report supported by more than two dozen worldwide leaders in this space. Their aim is to reframe the debate so that cancer imaging is placed alongside curative interventions as an essential component of care, those involved say.
Members of the Lancet Oncology Commission on Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine have produced what they believe is the first-ever comprehensive quantification of global imaging resources. As part of the endeavor, a simulation model built by Harvard University estimated that investing in imaging and treatment could produce a net benefit of $2.66 trillion and net return of $12.43 on every $1 spent.
"For the first time, we have evidence demonstrating the substantial health and economic benefits of scaling up imaging and nuclear medicine access for health outcomes of cancer patients globally,” Rifat Atun, MBBS, MBA, the report’s co-first author and a professor of global health systems at Harvard, said in a statement, adding that their findings make a “compelling economic case” for international imaging investment.
Atun and colleagues’ goal is to convince governments and other funding bodies to put resources toward radiology, with an emphasis on low- and middle-income countries. By 2030, worldwide cancer deaths could reach 13 million annually, they estimated. About 80% of disability-adjusted life years lost to the disease occur in such under-resourced countries, which receive only about 5% of global funding for cancer care and control.
The commission’s March 4 report concludes that achieving this “equitable scale-up” is a matter of vision and political will. Effective public leadership, active participation from myriad stakeholders, and aligned global efforts to expand access are just a few of the essential ingredients to reaching their desired endpoint, leaders said.
Twenty-seven organizations are supporting the commission, including the RSNA, the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, and the American College of Radiology. The latter called the report “groundbreaking” on Thursday, noting that the college has long supported these aspirations.
“The ACR invested in the formation of this effort and strongly supports the goals that the commission has laid out,” CEO William Thorwarth, MD, said in a statement.
You can read commission’s full report, which was launched at the 2021 European Congress of Radiology on March 4, in Lancet Oncology here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.