ASRT makes provision for members to specialize in various areas of radiologic technology such as computed tomography, mammography, magnetic resonance imaging, and nuclear medicine.
The organization's efforts to promote professional development, support legislative advocacy, and establish standards of practice make it a respected and trustworthy resource for radiologic technologists.
The vast majority were women, and they were expected not only to operate the x-ray equipment, but also to perform routine machine maintenance.3 These first technicians also worked in a climate indifferent to radiation protection, and the death toll among them was high.
It wasn't until nearly 20 years after Roentgen's discovery that precautions such as lead aprons and film badges came into widespread use.4 Because instructional manuals were rare, the first technicians learned positioning and exposure techniques via the "hunch method.
It described a one-year course in x-ray technology and recommended the number of hours that should be devoted to each subject, ranging from physics and anatomy to positioning and darkroom technique.
The change was spurred because more and more of the society's members were nuclear medicine technologists and radiation therapists, so the term “x-ray technician” no longer accurately reflected the membership.
The organization's leaders realized it was time to move the burgeoning society from Fond du Lac, the ASRT's headquarters for more than two decades.
Once-exotic procedures such as computed tomography, mammography and sonography were becoming commonplace, and demand soared for personnel qualified to operate the equipment.
Fearing that the shortage would lead to “diploma mills” that churned out technologists with little formal training, the ASRT began promoting more rigorous educational requirements and minimum national standards for medical imaging and radiation therapy personnel.
The Consumer-Patient Radiation Health and Safety bill, as the proposed legislation was titled, had strong opponents who exerted significant political pressure.
By the early 1980s, the ASRT was focused on ensuring long-term financial stability for the organization while expanding its range of benefits and services to members.
The ASRT's downtown Chicago office was the organization's single largest expense, leaving no money for investments or for future expansion of the society.
This effort was reinvigorated in 1998, when the ASRT sought to amend the 1981 Consumer-Patient Radiation Health and Safety Act to make compliance by the states mandatory.
The ASRT formed a Government Relations Department, launched an exhaustive grass-roots lobbying effort and built a coalition with other radiologic science organizations to gain support for the issue on Capitol Hill.
In response to increased concern by the public over patient radiation dose, the ASRT along with The American College of Radiology, The American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the Society for Pediatric Radiology developed and launched the Image Gently Campaign which is designed to maintain high quality imaging studies while using the lowest doses and best radiation safety practices available on pediatric patients.
[4] This initiative has been endorsed and applied by a growing list of various Professional Medical organizations around the world and has received support and assistance from companies that manufacture equipment used in radiology.
In addition, the ASRT operates a website which contains news, information about the profession, educational material for patients and a variety of professional resources for radiologic technologists.
The ASRT monitors and responds to all legislation that affects the profession and coordinates with other organizations to establish legal minimum standards to ensure high quality patient care.
[6] This bill will delay instructions that would restrict women under the age of 50 from receiving mammograms from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which control medical payments.
[6] The PALS Act of 2021 aims to block the USPSTF from enforcing these instructions until January 1, 2028, and lower the age in which women can benefit from receiving mammograms to 40.
The ASRT works with volunteers to develop and revise educational curricula, professional standards and practice guidelines for radiologic technologists and radiation therapists.
The ASRT represents the profession in the governmental, educational and research arenas and was recently instrumental in the development of the registered radiologist assistant (R.R.A.