Women in British Columbia will no longer have to wait weeks to find out if their abnormal mammography results are cause for worry. The screening mammography program (SMP) at BC Cancer Agency is expanding the Fast Track referral system to provide all physicians in British Columbia with access to the program designed to reduce the time between an abnormal screening mammography result and access to further diagnostic investigation.

AMICAS, Inc. has announced a new contract with Central Kentucky Radiology that will allow the latter to use AMICAS Financials(TM) to streamline their radiology billing and AMICAS RIS(TM) to gain practice management efficiencies and to further improve service delivery. Central Kentucky Radiology, a 24-radiologist practice, provides interpretation services for 14 hospitals and four imaging centers. In practice for more than 40 years, Central Kentucky Radiology provides mammography, x-ray, ultrasound, CT, MRI, and interventional radiology services.

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The FDA has announced the release of a draft guidance entitled “The Mammography Quality Standards Act Final Regulations: Modifications and Additions to Policy Guidance Help System 13.” The document is aimed at providing the FDA’s current view on the final regulations implementing the Mammography Quality Standards Act of 1992 MQSA) to the mammography facilities and their personnel. Some of the points addressed in the draft guidance are:
•    General guidance regarding Additional Mammography Reviews (AMRs)
•    Previously approved alternative standards
•    Labeling of mammographic images
•    Mammographic modality and its impact on personnel experience requirements

Doctors have come up with a revolutionary new mammogram that is radiation and pain free! They are using ultrasound technology to detect tumors in the breast. Radiologists from the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, USA, suspend a woman’s breasts in water and fire ultrasound rays through them to generate images of the breast tissue. Not only is the new method pain free, it is said to be more accurate at picking up cancer than a traditional mammogram and uses no radiation so it’s safer for the patient.

Hologic has received approval from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for R2 DigitalNow HD software that allows radiologists to improve the analysis of mammograms. Marketing director Jim Culley said that a large number of screening sites in the US use analog photographs, which can lose image quality when they are digitized. R2 DigitalNow HD can digitize older film-based mammograms, while retaining image quality.

A study conducted by Statistics Canada in 2008 indicated that 72% of women aged between 50 and 69 reported having a mammogram over the past two years. However, only 40% of adults over 50 years of age are screened regularly for colorectal cancer, even though early testing can sometimes prevent cancer.

PACSGEAR, Inc. has announced the introduction of PacsSCAN Film(TM) for Mammography, an application specifically designed for digitizing film-based mammography images. The PacsSCAN Film for Mammography System scans plain film mammograms and allows side-by-side comparison with digital mammography images. The product measurably improves radiologists’ reading times by employing the DICOM Digital Mammography standard. This standard enables the correct sequencing of scanned images on digital mammography workstations. Scanned images can be enhanced by using the company’s proprietary Dynamic Contrast Algorithm (DCA), which gives scanned film a digital look and feel.

According to the results of a major new clinical trial, adding a screening ultrasound examination to routine mammography reveals more breast cancers than mammography alone. This study also showed that supplemental ultrasound may be beneficial in women at high risk of breast cancer who could not, or would not, otherwise undergo a magnetic resonance imaging scan. The trial, however, also found that adding an ultrasound exam increases the rate of false positive findings and unnecessary biopsies.

The American Society of Breast Disease’s Consensus Committee has corroborated that screening MRI is appropriate as an additional test to mammography, clinical breast examination, and ultrasonography for the detection of breast cancer in women who are at high risk. The recommendation was based on the most current data available.

Photo by Ctd 2005

Connect Imaging Inc., developer of customizable PACS (picture archiving and communication systems), has released a new version of its Mammo ViewBox software to support a super high resolution mammography display from Japan’s Totoku Electric Co. Ltd. Connect Imaging’s mammography workstation software is the first to support the ISD technology of the Totoku MS51i2 digital mammography display.