19th Annual National Interdisciplinary Breast Center Conference March 14-18, 2009 Specialized Pre-Conference Sessions March 14 & 15 Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino Las Vegas, NV
Transition to Digital Mammography Saturday, March 14, 2009 7:00 AM - 5:30 PM

 

7:00 - 8:00 AM Breakfast	10:00 - 10:30 AM Break	2:20 – 3:10 PM FFDM: Financial Considerations Michael Linver, MD, FACR The current state of reimbursement for FFDM will be discussed. This will be placed in the broader context of the status of reimbursement throughout radiology and in the context of other financial considerations one should evaluate when purchasing digital equipment. Suggestions on how to remain financially sound in the FFDM environment will complete the discussion.
8:00 - 8:30 AM FFDM: An Overview Michael Linver, MD, FACR FFDM now comprises over 40% of all breast imaging equipment in the United States. Although the imaging equipment is now quite mature, many other aspects of FFDM remain problematic, including workstation design, connectivity issues, workflow patterns and transitioning from film/screen among others. These will be addressed and elucidated as a prelude to more in-depth discussions to follow.	10:30 - 11:20 AM FFDM: Workfl ow Issues William R. Poller, MD, FACR The basic new workflow issues will be discussed. The impact on technologists will be shown. The impact on radiologists will be discussed. The impact on patient care will be shown.
8:30 - 9:00 AM FFDML QC Accreditation Jay R. Parikh, MD, FRCP(c), CPE, FSBI, FACPE Following implementation of MQSA in the early 1990’s the quality of screen-film mammography (SFM) has increased in the United States. Full-field digital mammography (FFDM) is gaining increased acceptance and utilization in the United States and has the potential to ultimately replace SFM. For the FFDM transition to be effective, it will need to be coupled with quality control. FFDM QC is currently a time-consuming process compared to SFM QC. Moreover, the FFDM QC process varies by vendor. Standardization of the FFDM QC process across manufacturers would translate into operational benefit for breast centers.	11:20 AM - 12:30 PM Panel Discussion - Digital Imaging Units William R. Poller, MD, FACR, Jay R. Parikh, MD, FRCP(c), CPE, FSBI, FACPE and Michael Linver, MD, FACR The Full Field Digital units for mammography are both similar and different. A panel discussing each vendor will answer audience questions regarding these units. The problems will be discussed in an open forum with audience participation.	3:10 – 4:00 PM New Technologies in Digital Mammography: Tomosynthesis and Contrast-Enhanced Mammography John Lewin, MD While the technical performance of digital mammography is impressive, its clinical advantage over film mammography, if any, appears to be incremental. The real advantage of digital will likely come from advanced applications. In this course we will discuss the two most promising applications, tomosynthesis and contrast-enhanced mammography, present the latest results of clinical research on these technologies, and discuss where they stand in terms of approval for clinical use.
	12:20 - 1:30 PM Lunch
9:00 - 10:00 AM Transitioning from SFM to FFDM Rachel Brem, MD This talk will describe the technical and workfl ow issues and considerations in the transition from analog to digital mammography.	1:30 – 2:20 PM Update on Clinical Trials in Digital Mammography – Is it really better? John Lewin, MD There have been four large screening trials testing digital mammography against fi lm mammography. The results of the trials have been confusing and contradictory. The latest and largest trial, the ACRIN DMIST trial, appeared to show that digital was better than fi lm in some women, but not overall. Additional analyses of the DMIST data have been performed since the initial reporting of the results. These newer results have some good news and some not so good news for digital
		4:00 – 5:30 PM Panel Discussion of Clinical Applications Michael N. Linver, MD, FACR, William R. Poller, MD, FACS, Jay R. Parikh, FRCP(c), CPE, FSBI, FACPE, Rachel Brem, MD and John Lewin, MD An overview of the clinical applications of FFDM will be reviewed, including the various aspects discussed in greater depth throughout this course. Each panel member will review the key points of their presentations and will address questions from the audience.
		5:30 PM Adjourn
Register early! Last year other pre-conference courses were full 30 days prior to the conference.