The effectiveness of service delivery initiatives at improving patients' waiting times in clinical radiology departments: a systematic review.

We reviewed the literature for the impact of service delivery initiatives (SDIs) on patients' waiting times within radiology departments. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, INSPEC and The Cochrane Library for relevant articles published between 1995 and February, 2013. The Cochrane EPOC risk of bias tool was used to assess the risk of bias on studies that met specified design criteria.

Combined effects of temperature changes and radiation absorption on living tissue.

Background: The need for the development of criteria for the referral of patients for radiographic examinations, especially in the face of the results of separate studies on temperature and radiation effects, formed the background to this study. The aim of this study is to determine the possible consequences of low dose radiation to living tissue in the presence of elevated temperatures, with a view to developing referral criteria for patients scheduled for radiodiagnostic examinations.

Method: A two part procedure in the form of x-irradiation of water phantom at temperatures ranging from 25 and 45 degrees Celsius, to assess absorbed dose with temperature variation, as well as histological study of living tissue extracted from the skin and lungs of experimental animals, exposed to x-radiation at kilovoltage range between 50 and 90 and temperature values between 25 and 45 degrees Celsius.