DIFFUSION OF DIGITAL RADIOLOGY MODALITIES IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES ANDJAPAN

The Nordic countries have 23 million inhabitants. About 14 million rad iology examinations are performed annually at hospitals and in primary health care. This represents about 600 examinations per 1000 inhabita nts per year. Japan, on the other hand, has 125 million inhabitants an d annually performs about 200 million radiology examinations at hospit als and in primary health care. This represents about 1600 examination s per 1000 inhabitants per year. The above figures do not include dent al X-ray examinations. Between 15% and 20% of all radiology examinatio ns in the Nordic countries and about 5% in Japan are performed with di gital modalities such as computerized tomography, digital subtraction angiography, computed radiography, and magnetic resonance imaging. Com puterized tomography is the most diffused digital X-ray modality in th e Nordic countries with 95000 inhabitants per scanner while Japan only has 17000 inhabitants per scanner. For magnetic resonance imaging the difference is almost of the same order. Japan has the same diffusion of magnetic resonance imaging units per 100000 inhabitants as the Nord ic countries have of computerized tomography scanners. The large diffe rence between Japan and the Nordic countries regarding diffusion of di gital radiology modalities is explained mainly by differences in the n ature and organization of radiology services.