Digital Mammography Screening

Experience does matter

By setting up and efficiently operating decentralised screening infrastructures during the last three years and through the many years of cooperation with the former planning unit for mammography screening in Germany – now the Mammography Cooperation – Image Diagnost has greatly fostered the feasibility and acceptance of digital screening in Germany. As a consequence more than 20 digital screening regions in six federal states rely on the solution from Image Diagnost.

As early as in 2004 Image Diagnost furnished a digital screening project in the Netherlands and was thus able to gather valuable experience and develop innovations such as integrated reporting and automated workflows. Especially, Image Diagnost has made the experience that capturing the findings immediately at the MammoWorkstation is paramount in order to yield the level of performance that is required for double reading. Based on this longstanding competence in setting up digital mammography networks Image Diagnost has developed a concept that allows equipping decentralized screening networks using standard components, fosters unified reporting and, through its automated workflows and integrated reporting, helps physicians to simplify the organization of their workflow.

Report integration with mammography screening information system (MIS/SIS)

Beside the transfer of images the integration of images and reports is paramount in order to come up with a high-performance solution. Therefore, in late 2005 the Bavarian association of panel doctors which is responsible for the administration of the screening program in Bavaria turned to Image Diagnost and – guided by Image Diagnost – developed a report interface to its digital mammography screening information system (MammaSoft). Since May 2006 screening units working with MammaSoft and Image Diagnost’s CollaborationServer enjoy the benefits of a highly efficient, integrated workflow where the radiologist can report his findings immediately at the workstation, thus obviating the need to switch between two systems. Then, pushed by a number of radiologists, the two associations of panel doctors responsible for the administration of the screening programme in North Rhine-Westphalia in late 2006 decided to also develop, based on the proposal by Image Diagnost, a report interface to its screening information system (MaSc) and – together with Image Diagnost – to pilot this interface in spring 2007. Since all the other organisations in Germany responsible for the administration of screening programmes use either MammaSoft or MaSc all screening units in Germany in the near future will be able to reap the benefits of our CollaborationServer. The ability to enter findings immediately at the workstation that is enabled by the report interface offers improved efficiency in practical operation, resulting in a relaxed and concentrated work climate that ultimately improves diagnostic quality.

Solutions for your digital screening unit

As solution provider Image Diagnost aids you in building a powerful IT infrastructure for mammography screening that makes easy quality assurance of the screening unit feasible. From image acquisition with integrated clinical documentation through double reading and consensus conferences up to clarification we support the entire workflow with a seamless solution that integrates pre-existing RIS and PACS systems in a vendor independent way. For subjects such as mobile mammography units, VPN interconnect or long term archiving we have competent partners.

Important aspects

Future-proof and vendor independent
Image Diagnost relies on established standards in order to offer a vendor independent solution with respect to modalities and PACS. The recommendation PAS 1054 (Requirements and testing of digital mammographic X-ray equipment) states requirements for interfaces of diagnostic workstations based on open protocols for image data, findings reports and work lists. Image Diagnost is the only vendor to support the recommendations of PAS 1054 such as the use of DICOM Structured Report for reporting the findings in mammography. The MammoWorkstation by Image Diagnost is therefore internationally regarded as leading system for digital mammography.

Data security and control
We give the physician who is responsible for a screening unit complete control over the amount of data that is captured in his unit and forwarded to a superior administrative organisation. Thus, only required data as set forth in the Guideline for Early Cancer Detection are transferred to the superior administrative system.

Integration with local infrastructure
The Guideline for Early Cancer Detection requires that screenings be organisationally separated from curative mammography. Nevertheless it must be guarantied that during a curative visit of a patient the physician has access to her images acquired during screening. To that end the CollaborationServer can be integrated with the local RIS-system.

Quality assurance
Which image data has been available to the examining physician or whether previous images were available must be auditable. A loose connection between viewing software and the editor for the findings report does not accomplish this. Therefore, in the MammoWorkstation the editor for the findings report and the viewing component are tightly integrated. This prevents e.g. findings gained from reading the images of Mueller, Adele being entered into the findings report form for Miller, Adelaide.