Report: Mammography procedures, dedicated breast care centers on the rise
A new report offers a snapshot of the products and services offered by U.S. mammography centers. The women’s breast care centers have emerged as a common approach to care in both hospital and non-hospital practices which offer a full scope of services to women, according to the 2005 Mammography Center Market Summary Report from the IMV Medical Information Division.
"Over 1,000 of 8,815 sites certified by the FDA in the United States participated in the study, including hospitals, independent imaging centers and physicians' offices," said Lorna Young, senior director, IMV’s Market Research. "Based on their responses, we project that 37.7 million mammography procedures were performed in 2005, up 2 percent from 37 million in 2004. In 2005, an estimated 11 percent of the procedures were performed on full-field digital mammography (FFDM) systems in 2005."
The report offers a comprehensive view of the centers, including the latest breast imaging technologies they plan to acquire, such as FFMD. Following are highlights:
"Over 1,000 of 8,815 sites certified by the FDA in the United States participated in the study, including hospitals, independent imaging centers and physicians' offices," said Lorna Young, senior director, IMV’s Market Research. "Based on their responses, we project that 37.7 million mammography procedures were performed in 2005, up 2 percent from 37 million in 2004. In 2005, an estimated 11 percent of the procedures were performed on full-field digital mammography (FFDM) systems in 2005."
The report offers a comprehensive view of the centers, including the latest breast imaging technologies they plan to acquire, such as FFMD. Following are highlights:
- The mix of screening vs. diagnostic procedures performed was 76 percent screening and 24 percent diagnostic;
- Twenty-one percent of the breast centers report an average lead time to schedule a screening mammography exam is less than a day, 52 percent from one day to one week, 20 percent from one week to one month, and 7 percent have a typical lead time of over one month;
- Ultrasound is used for breast imaging at nearly three-quarters of the mammography centers. Other imaging modalities, including scintimammography, breast MRI imaging and PET scanning for breast cancer are available at these centers are not as widely available; and
- Over one-third of the mammography centers currently use CAD (computer-aided detection) software systems to augment readings of x-ray mammography;
- Nearly half of the sites perform ultrasound-guided biopsies, whereas stereotactic biopsies are performed at over one-quarter and MRI-guided biopsies are performed at 2 percent of the mammography sites.