Radiographers as film readers: an evaluation of performance in breast screening

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Abstract
Breast cancer screening in the UK has so far been a consultancy-led service. Concerns over future staffing levels and increasing evidence that dual film reading improves cancer detection have led to an investigation of the feasibility of training lay film readers. This research reports the findings of a longitudinal study of seven radiographers reading mammograms for breast cancer screening. The study was designed so that screening mammograms were read independently by two radiographers and a radiologist. Film reading performances was also assessed in terms of screening outcome measures, such as recall, assessment outcome and biopsy outcome. The effect od double reading by radiologist/radiographer pairs was also examined. It was found that radiographers yield high agreement with radiologists and with screening outcomes. Dual reading resulted in increased sensitivity in line with expectations from previous studies on radiologist double reading. It was concluded that the role of the radiographer needs to be defined more precisely in relation to the dual reading model adopted in order to assess training needs.

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