A method to plan a scan in consideration of past patient exposures. The
method includes a step of sampling information on a patient exposure the
subject has received during a scan performed for reconstructing
tomographic images, which is appended to each of the reconstructed
tomographic images, on the basis of identification information with which
the subject is identified; a step of creating a distribution of patient
exposures calculated relative to an axis orthogonal to the scanning
directions on the basis of the sampled information on the patient
exposure (an estimated patient exposure, which is estimated in planning a
scan, and an exposure limit); and a step of displaying the created
exposure distribution.