Commentary

1. The written request shall be retained as long as considered useful or as long as required by a statutory authority.
2. All units shall maintain a complete record of all scans performed and this shall include complete identifying details of the patient, the name of the referring medical practitioner, the date the test was performed and investigations required.
3. The raw data from all scans shall be stored using appropriate long-term electronic storage mediums, allowing re-analysis when necessary. QC data relevant for the validation of scans shall also be stored.
4. Unlike many clinical investigations, bone densitometry data increase in utility the longer the serial record is maintained. Thus copies of reports shall be retained in the unit for a minimum of ten years, or in compliance with any statutory requirement - whichever is longer.
5. Results of investigations are normally confidential to the requesting medical practitioner and patient, but past Unit records may be made available to a clinician currently caring for the patient. Requests from a researcher for access to data must be approved by the appropriate institutional ethics committee, and all identifying information must be removed from the data, except with the specific consent of the patient.
6. Storage conditions for Unit records shall be adequate for their preservation and retrieval.
   

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	Bone Densitometry INDEX