Real-Time Full-Field Direct Telemammography

Conventional film mammography has several technical limitations which reduce its effectiveness, most of which can be overcome by full-field direct digital mammography FFDDM. This research investigates an important application of digital breast imaging telemammography, the electronic transfer of digital mammography images to remote viewing sites. This should permit radiologists with great interpretive expertise to manage and read in real-time all mammography examinations in a multiple-site practice, an approach superior to either deferred interpretation by expert readers or real-time interpretation by general radiologists. During Year 1 of this project, we installed the first of two FFDDM imagers and developed the infrastructure of a telemammography chain between two distant sites. By showing that telemammography technology can be developed for routine clinical operation, and that real-time off-site management and interpretation of a general-radiologist mammography practice by mammography specialists is feasible as standard operating procedure, we expect to establish telemammography applications of digital radiography as both valid and useful. The application of these procedures to routine mammographic examinations should bring to bear the expertise of mammography specialists at the community-practice general-radiologist level. This should benefit all women undergoing mammography in the future.