CurveBeam Connect: Breaking Down a New Study on Weight-Bearing CT’s Impact on Cost

In this episode of the CurveBeam podcast, host Vinti Singh sat down with Dr. Martinus Richter, MD, Ph.D.to discuss the results of his latest published study: “Results of more than 11,000 scans with weight-bearing CT – Impact on costs, radiation exposure and procedure time.” This first-of-its-kind study examined the economic implications of CT scans versus radiographs for patients.

Click here to download the execuctive summary for this episode of CurveBeam Connect, featuring Dr. Martinus Richter, MD, PhD.

Dr. Richter is department head of the foot and ankle orthopedic surgery section at Hospital Rummelsberg in Rummelsberg, Germany and has published numerous studies in orthopedic journals.

Dr. Richter oversaw a study, which was conducted over more than five years. to assess the benefits of using weight bearing CT (WBCT) instead of a combination of weight bearing radiographs (R) and conventional CT (CT). The study looked at the modalities’ impacts on costs, radiation exposure and procedure time.

In the study, 11,009 scans, taken from July 2013 through March of 2019, were obtained from 4987 patients—45% (4,897) before treatment; 55% (6,022) at follow-up—with a yearly average of 1,957 WBCTs (bilateral scans). These were compared to 1,850 Rs (bilateral feet, dorsoplantar and lateral, metatarsal head skyline view) and 254 CTs obtained from 885 patients (RCT group) in 2012.

The conclusions help to solidify that not only can WBCT more precisely measure bone position than conventional X-Ray and CT scans, but also decreases the time needed for image acquisition by 77% and radiation dosage by 10%, while increasing institution financial profitability by $57.19 (51€) per patient.