Advanced Mammography Screening Is Inaugurated At Falmouth Hospital

Digital mammography has arrived at Falmouth Hospital.

The conversion from the analog film screen mammography units to the new GE full-field digital mammography units was completed in February and routine screening and diagnostic mammography with the new units was expected to begin in early April, according to the hospital’s Medical Director of Radiology, Dr. Kenneth Caswell.

The addition provides Cape Cod Healthcare patients with access to a third digital mammogram service. These procedures also are done at The Breast Care Center at Cape Cod Hospital and at Fontaine Medical Center in Harwich.

Joanne Smith, Director of Radiology Services at Falmouth Hospital, coordinated the conversion process, which Dr. Caswell described as “a pretty complicated thing.”

There are many benefits to this new technology, Dr. Caswell said. Radiologists can read images on the Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) software system, and all computer monitors have been upgraded to give radiologists the sharpest image.

“You can read a mammogram just like an MRI and dictate into the computer,” he said.

The new digital mammography units also will be upgraded to perform a new technology called “tomosynthesis” when the technology is approved by the FDA. Tomosynthesis takes a slice of the breast image, allowing radiologists to see whether a cloudy area on an image is actually a mass or just overlapping tissue. It has not been determined whether it will be used on every screening mammogram, or only for problem-solving, Dr. Caswell said.

Patients’ analog films of prior mammograms are being digitized so the radiologists can compare the same types of images. All mammograms are being put through the Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) system to provide “a nice back check,” he said. CAD enhances images so radiologists can get a better look and works better with digital mammography.

Digital mammography will make technologists’ work easier and faster and radiologists can spend more time reviewing each image using their own computers, Dr. Caswell said.

This isn’t the end of it, either. Plans are in the works for a new software package, called “MagView,” which will allow the department to track patients, monitor outcomes and assess quality assurance