Digital Mammography

With Mammography being one of the last medical imaging modalities to join the digital revolution, the Mammography department can now benefit from years of technical and workflow enhancements through digital imaging and PACS. Advances in DDR and CR technology have grown to include Digital Mammography.

Very few modality vendors offer a digital mammography system. Those who do boast their digital mammography systems will provide greater latitude in breast imaging and faster turn around times among many other improvements.

Digital mammography requires specialized hardware and software for image acquisition and review. In some cases the Mammography exam room will require physical renovations including power and networking upgrades. Digital mammography images are very large due to the level of detail required for breast imaging, which means your PACS archive or enterprise storage system will need to be expanded. Lastly, digital mammography vendors recommend an optional and separate Mammography Computer Aided Detection (Mammo CAD) system.

Implementing digital mammography can be expensive but is it worth it?

Digital Mammography Question:

1. What Returns on Investment have you achieved since the implementation of Digital Mammography?

2. Has the time to screening results improved in your Mammography department since the implementation of digital?

3. What other advantages or improvements have you documented since the implementation of Digital Mammography and/or Mammography CAD?