This article is part of the supplement: Symposium Mammographicum 2004
A 3-year audit of radiographer screen film reading
1 Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Trust, Hull, UK
2 Humberside BreastScreening Programme, Hull, UK
Breast Cancer Res 2004, 6(Suppl 1):P11 doi:10.1186/bcr830
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:
| Published: | 14 July 2004 |
©
Oral presentation
A team of five radiographers assists with film reading in our large combined screening and symptomatic breast unit. The first were trained in 1999, and now have 5 years experience. For the last 3 years their screen reading performance has been intensively audited.
Film reading numbers have ranged from 4.8 to 11,000/year. Cancer detection rates average 6/1000, with the best radiographer achieving 7/1000. Recall rates are kept low by consensus review of all recalls, less than 5%.
Film reading performance in real life does reflect the 'PERFORMS' score.
Lobular cancers are more likely to be missed by new film readers and are disproportionately over-represented in the 'minority report' cancers detected.
In conclusion, radiographers perform as well as average breast-screening radiologists after 3 years supervised experience.