Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, part of the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, the hospital has ordered two Mammomat Inspiration full-field direct digital mammography systems from Siemens Healthcare, including one that incorporates computer-aided detection (CAD) technology.

The Inspiration machine has been ordered with syngo MammoCAD, a software program developed by Siemens, which assists radiologists to interpret digital breast images by flagging up areas of possible concern for further examination. The software also measures the volume, diameter and position of suspected tumors, storing the data so it can be used for comparison in follow-up examinations and post-treatment consultations.

The system, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, can examine more than 15 patients an hour and has a gap of just 18 seconds between exposure and display of high-resolution digital images, Siemens said.