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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For this month’s newsletter, we asked some experts how mammography findings and breast density information can be better used to engage women in their health care. Read on for details.
How does your facility communicate mammography findings and breast density information? Let us know on Twitter and/or Facebook.
Enjoy the newsletter.
— Dave Yeager, editor |
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Engaging Women With Enhanced Mammography Letters
Participants:
- Bruce F. Schroeder, MD, of Carolina Breast Imaging Specialists in Greenville, North Carolina
- Leslie Ferris Yerger, CEO and founder of My Density Matters
- Corrine Ellsworth-Beaumont, MFA, PhD, CEO of Know Your Lemons Foundation
- Gail Zeamer, founder of Wisconsin Breast Density Initiative
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In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Radiology Today presents a discourse featuring a distinguished panel of breast imaging professionals. Topics touched upon during the virtual consultation include engaging women in their breast health care and new ways to communicate mammography and breast density results.
First off, what is a mammography patient letter?
Schroeder: In the US, following her mammogram, a woman will receive a letter with the results of the exam, informing the woman whether the results were normal or if there were any findings, benign or suspicious, that require additional surveillance or testing. Today, most letters will also include a breast density measurement. This letter, written in lay language, is distinct from the official report that is sent to her physicians.
How does the Density Inform movement impact patient letters?
Ellsworth-Beaumont: While laws have been passed to let women know they have dense breasts, the wording in the mammogram report letter is often counterproductive by dismissing it as common. Patient letters provide little or no information about the patient’s risk factors. In addition, most women never see their own mammography images, even though images may help women visualize their breast density and understand why additional imaging may be needed. Patients need personalized correspondence that helps them understand their results and clearly communicates what supplemental screening is recommended for women with their specific risk profile.
Full story » |
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Not-So-Secret Agents
Novel radiotracers with a “lock-and-key” design are becoming integral to the targeted imaging, as well as the effective therapy, of specific bodily regions. Experts share some ways their patients with prostate cancer have benefited. Read more »
Another Look
Amid some troubling new statistics about colon cancer, the US Preventive Services Task Force has issued updated recommendations that prominently emphasize screening with CT colonography, and the industry is taking notice. Read more »
Performance Enhancement
A landmark study has revealed that those who interpret mammograms can have widely disparate platforms of knowledge and experience. An effort is underway to standardize the metrics and outline the keys to success. Read more »
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?
By rendering the heart in four dimensions, thereby affording medical personnel a virtually hands-on perspective, holography is distinguishing itself as a next-level adjunct to diagnostic and surgical procedures. Read more » |
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New Endoscopic Technique Expands Parameters of Deep-Brain Imaging
Purdue researchers report that a miniature rotating imaging probe housed within an ultrathin glass capillary enables the observation of 1,000 times more brain tissue than previously accessible. Mouse studies detailed in Nature Methods suggest this method can help decipher the neural circuit mechanisms at the very root of the human brain.
XRF, Machine Learning Reveal Earlier Painting Beneath Picasso Masterwork
Using X-ray fluorescence, or XRF, in conjunction with AI, a London-based organization has analyzed Pablo Picasso’s “The Blind Man’s Meal” and re-created an earlier painting concealed on the same canvas. Images courtesy of CNN illustrate the process, inviting discussion about the role of technology in reconstructing unseen works by the masters.
Commercial Space Firms Face Complicated, Evolving Regulatory Landscape
Amid a blossoming industry catering to private citizens who wish to travel to outer space (see the forthcoming November/December edition of Radiology Today for details), Breaking Defense reports that commercial aerospace endeavors, including surveillance, are facing a regulatory quagmire as mind-boggling as space travel itself.
Endangered Australian Bird Inspires Thermal Surveillance of Habitat
Fowl play is suspected in the mysterious migration of a near-extinct Australian bird to a location more than 80 miles from its comfort zone. The seldom-seen “plains wanderer” has limited flight, so its perilous journey has experts baffled. The bird is fine, and ABC News reports that thermal imaging will now be used to keep better track of the species.
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“I live half a mile from a hospital. That’s right, half a mile. The ambulance insisted they take me to the hospital, so they did. I had great insurance with the state since I was adopted, and this happened a few months before my 18th birthday, so the state was supposed to cover it. My ambulance bill came out to be $10,000 for half a mile. They weren’t even working on me during the ride. Then, they filed the bill after my 18th birthday, so my insurance denied it. Four years later, my mom finally got the state to pay it.”
— jazmineb49d289c21, quoted on BuzzFeed, in a compilation of anecdotes consumers have shared about medical billing |
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