Doctors and radiologists should adhere to the laws that prohibit medical practitioners from disclosing the gender of the foetus and stop misusing diagnostic tests for pre-natal gender determination which can lead to female foeticide, said president Pratibha Patil here on Friday at the 64th national conference of the Indian radiologist and imaging association.

“We have laws and legal provisions that prohibit medical practitioners from disclosing the gender of the foetus. It is not only illegal, but it is socially immoral and detrimental to society (misusing technology). It is very important that all medical facilities, doctors and radiologists, adhere to this, so as to prevent incidents of female foeticide, a phenomenon that is a disgrace to society and is a social evil. It has to be eradicated,” said Patil.

Minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi was also present at the event and stressed that the advantages of technology should reach the rural areas as well.

“The government of India is making all efforts to see that the benefits of these technological advancements in diagnosis and treatment do not remain restricted to just urban India, but also reach the rural masses. The government is trying to incentivise organisations to setup new hospitals in small towns and rural areas,” said Trivedi.

Stressing that patient welfare is a core principle for any branch of medicine, president said that the patients should be made properly aware of the do's and the don'ts involved while undergoing radiation-based therapies.

Trivedi added, “Over utilization of medical imaging examinations can be detrimental to patients by exposing them to unnecessary radiation. I hope radiologists and medical physicists will work together to improve the safety of imaging examinations by lowering radiation dose without sacrificing diagnostic quality.”

Pratibha Patil also pushed for using telemedicine as an easy and affordable means of providing healthcare to all.

The conference was organised by IRIA, an association of radiologists in India, which has over 8,000 members.