Times Article on Transitional Price of Digital Mammo
While proven better for women under 50 and those with very dense breasts, digital mammography appears to come with an unforeseen price tag: more repeat exams-at least initially. That's the word from an article you may have caught in the April 10th New York Times called "In Shift to Digital, More Repeat Mammograms".
The reason centers on the difficulty radiologists have in retraining themselves in digital reads, and reconciling the differences between digital exams and a patient's film priors. The resultant uncertainty in assessing these differences is leading to not only more mammograms, but more ultrasounds and biopsies as well.
For patients, that means greater anxiety and possibly expense if insurance doesn't foot the bill. For physicians, it means more time and money as well.
The article findings are based on feedback from 10 radiologists, including mammo's heavy hitters such as University of North Carolina's Etta D. Pisano, MD, and University of Washington's Constance D. Lehman, MD, PhD. Eight said that during their transition from film to digital, recall rates shot up in women who ultimately had nothing wrong.
But most agree that the drawbacks are worth digital's benefits-greater clarity, contrast and magnification adjustability, and workflow improvement to name a few-and the growing pains are temporary.
What did you think of the article, if you've read it? What have you found in making the film-to-digital switch-any transitional tribulations?