Making Mammograms Better
The MemorialCare Breast Center is one of the leaders in a national radiology initiative
The MemorialCare Breast Center at Long Beach Medical Center has recently been selected to be part of a national project aimed at improving and standardizing mammograms.
The Learning Network division of the American College of Radiology (ACR) is sponsoring four separate 10-month radiology improvement initiatives that launched in April.
“One of the projects is the Mammography Positioning Improvement Collaborative,” said Angela Sie, M.D., a radiologist, and the medical director of Breast Imaging at the MemorialCare Breast Center. “Centers from all over the country applied to be part of the project; we were one of only six hospitals chosen.”
The participants in the collaborative use a team-based, structured multidisciplinary approach to address important areas of cancer diagnosis performance. Diagnostic excellence will be facilitated at the local sites at a previously unachievable scale. Participating sites will become regional and even national leaders in their focus areas.
“The main thrust is ensuring that mammography technologists have welldeveloped and continuously maintained mammography positioning skills,” Dr. Sie said.
Optimal positioning of breast tissue during a mammogram results in a clear image while suboptimal positioning can produce technically inadequate exams, potentially obscuring breast cancer, the doctor explained.
Positioning is key to the detection of small breast cancers,” Dr. Sie emphasized. “If the positioning is inadequate or if there is poor compression causing tissue overlap, the radiologist won’t be able to see if there is cancer.”
Inadequate image quality can also cause a false appearance of an abnormality and the need to return for additional imaging. Most of these callbacks reveal nothing suspicious.
Excellent image quality results in better cancer detection as well as fewer false alarms.
“It is tremendously important that every woman age 40 and older get a yearly screening mammogram, and at a center with a dedicated team of specialists who soley focus on Breast Imaging,” Dr. Sie said. “Performing mammograms is a very challenging job which takes dedication and commitment to maintenance and improvement. Every patient is different, which requires technologists being able to adapt accordingly. At MemorialCare, we ensure all our technologists are up to speed and top notch.”
Throughout the ACR Learning Network collaboration, MemorialCare Breast Center technologists participate in classroom training and online tutorials and are given tools and templates to achieve a successful detailed and standardized approach to problem solving. The imaging practices and results are evaluated at several levels, not only by the radiologists and technologists but also by software programs that analyze image quality as well as help detect cancers.
Dr. Sie added, “Patients will benefit from this collaboration. Image quality and thus cancer detection will be optimized, and there will be fewer false positive callbacks for more imaging.”
The project initiative ends in November, but the Center will be able to use the skills for continued learning and improvement.
“The MemorialCare Breast Center offers very high sensitivity and specificity in breast cancer detection, meaning we find the cancers at their earliest stages with minimal unnecessary call backs,” Dr. Sie said. “So with subspecialized radiologists, outstanding image quality and a spacious spa-like atmosphere, women can feel comfortable and confident coming here for their care.”