Ethics in the professional practice of imaging specialists

Abstract

Introduction: It constitutes an unavoidable need to maintain the complementation of ethics and the Imaging specialty as fundamental sciences during professional practice. Objective: To describe the role of ethics in the field of Imaging for the proper development of professional practice. Methods: An electronic search of publications and systematic reviews of the literature was carried out during the months of June and July of the year 2023, in the electronic databases Pubmed, Medline and SciELO, using the Google Scholar search engine, with the descriptors: "ethics and medical ethics", "Imagenology" and "ethics and Imaging". A total of 56 sources in the referred databases were reviewed, of which 31 bibliographic references were used. Results: Imaging specialists must comply with ethical obligations, like other health professionals, including respect for privacy, medical secrecy, confidentiality, as well as the practice of informed consent. These professionals are exposed to ethical conflicts during their professional practice, so they must be technically and scientifically prepared, which will also allow them to face the ethical dilemma of medico-legal Imaging, during which they must pay special attention to the indication of imaging studies for this purpose, when they do not provide any benefit to the patient. Conclusions: Imaging specialists who assist in patient care must ensure behavior in accordance with the ethical standards that govern the practice of this profession.