Mammograms bungled: Rush to fix the problem

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDNov 17 2010

Nearly 5,300 mammograms will need a review because of a computer error at Breast Screen Victoria. In a serious error a radiologist noticed a mismatch between the names of patients and their images. This may mean that some women may not have had their mammograms checked twice by two different radiologists as is the usual protocol.

According to senior radiologist Prof Jenny Cawson the double -checking system was a proven success. “There’s a lot of scientific evidence that if you have two radiologists reading mammograms you have a higher detection rate of breast cancer than if you have one radiologist… So it’s a quality assurance mechanism to maximise cancer detection,” she explained.

This spans over mammograms examined between the September 16 and October 6.

According to Breast Screen Victoria’s chief executive, Vicki Pridmore, in spite of the error it is extremely unlikely that any case of cancer has gone undetected. She explained, “In the general population, less than 0.5 per cent of women are diagnosed with breast cancer…We’re talking about a handful of instances where we think two readings may not have occurred. So you start multiplying less than 0.5 of a per cent by that incidence rate and we’re looking at an incredibly small number of women.” She urged women not to panic and assured, “So at this stage I’d say we’re about 30 per cent through the re-reading process.” She added that checks will be completed before Christmas.

Authorities have already contacted every woman affected by the bungle.