The arguments for mandatory vaccination with human papillomavirus vaccine differs from the justification for mandatory use of vaccines that protect against more easily transmitted diseases.

This case is challenging because it represents a potential error on the part of the radiologist who interpreted a previous film—not the doctor who is currently treating the patient. While standards are being developed to help doctors disclose their own errors, guidelines for discussing other doctors’ errors with patients are lacking.

Variations among physicians in diagnosis and X-ray interpretation, the percentages of which have remained essentially unchanged for five decades, raise serious ethical concerns.

When Hans Castorp, the protagonist in Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, receives a miniature X-ray print, he acquires a passport to what Susan Sontag describes as the “kingdom of the ill.” Hans knows he is ill because the X-ray declares it so, and his doctor merely shows him how to see the proof in the picture.

Each time an imaging study is ordered, radiologists must ask whether exposure to radiation is warranted. Imaging should not be performed to avoid litigation, for financial gain, to reach a quota, when the outcome clearly will not affect the treatment plan, or because the patient’s family demands it.

The expansion of imaging technology has dramatically affected all aspects of clinical medicine. As imaging comes to play a larger role in patient care, the physician-specialists who work in and lead this growing field—radiologists—are reassessing their professional responsibilities.

A review of some of the latest trends and challenges facing residency programs in radiology.

An examination of the effect that the Mammography Quality Standards Act has had on training and certification of radiologists and mammography technicians.

Radiologists have a duty to report suspected child abuse and this duty is not satisfied by merely sharing these suspicions with the referring physician if that physician does not intend to follow up.

The indications for MRI breast imaging and terminology for classifying the report findings.