The fight for safer cath labs continues: ‘We have to fix the work environment’
A group of nine U.S. medical societies has released a new suite of resources designed to help hospital leaders improve cath lab safety. This is the latest step in the group’s mission to reduce occupational radiation exposure and prevent orthopedic injuries related to heavy equipment.
The ALARA+ Coalition includes the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), American College of Cardiology, Alliance for Cardiovascular Professionals, American Society of Echocardiography, Heart Rhythm Society, Society of Interventional Radiology, Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery, Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology and Society for Vascular Surgery. The groups first met in 2025 for an in-person summit. They then used that conversation as the foundation of a report published in March 2026 in JSCAI, Heart Rhythm, JVIR and JVS–Vascular Insights.[1, 2, 3, 4]
This new suite of resources includes a Radiation Safety Foundations Toolkit, an ERPD Implementation Toolkit, an Economic and Business Toolkit and an Advocacy Toolkit. They are all available for free at the coalition’s website, www.ALARA-PLUS.org.
These documents were all built to give healthcare executives and other decisionmakers the resources they need to improve cath lab safety by reduction radiation exposure and minimizing the risk of avoidable orthopedic injuries.
“The cath lab should be a workplace where clinicians can build a full career without sacrificing their health and where the next generation sees a future worth choosing,” SCAI President J. Dawn Abbott, MD, said in a statement. “Trainees are watching mentors leave the field with injuries and illness, and too many are choosing other specialties as a result. If we want a strong pipeline of interventional cardiologists to meet growing patient demand, we have to fix the work environment itself. These resources from the ALARA+ Coalition give every institution the tools to do exactly that.”
Michael has more than 19 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.