Rebecca Smith Bindman

Rebecca Smith-Bindman is a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and a member of The Philip R Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California San Francisco and has led the Radiology Outcomes Research Lab for 25 years. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Engineering, attended UCSF Medical School, and completed her Radiology, Epidemiology, and Biostatistics training at UCSF.

She has authored landmark studies that document profound variations in the radiation doses that are used for CT and that quantify the harm of radiation as an environmental carcinogen. Dr. Smith-Bindman has also published standards and interventions that can minimize these harms. She has testified before the US Congress and FDA worked with leading national and international professional societies and communicated with the media to help focus attention on the need to improve the safety of imaging.

Dr. Smith-Bindman recently led a large multi-institutional epidemiological project focused on medical radiation funded by the NIH. This project collected radiation dose metrics associated with CTs from over 160 hospitals in the US, Europe, and Asia, and demonstrated that providing educational feedback to physicians and hospitals results in lower doses.