Radiology, Vol 180, 393-396, Copyright © 1991 by Radiological Society of North America
Professional mammographic quality assessment program for a community hospital
JW Reinig and CJ Strait
Department of Radiological Science, Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, Md.
The evaluation of mammographic interpretations is a difficult challenge for
a professional quality assessment program. As most images are read by a
single observer and pathologic proof is obtained only if prompted by the
report or if clinical symptoms warrant surgical intervention, it is
difficult to construct a meaningful quality assessment program. The authors
designed a program on the basis of a mammographic coding system that allows
both individual physicians and practice groups to be evaluated. The program
examines mammographic reports to determine the consistency of reporting by
each physician and by the entire group. In addition, the program
facilitated periodic evaluation of physicians with use of test cases. The
coding system provided an easy method of correlating the mammographic
reports with pathology reports from biopsy specimens, allowing a more
thorough examination of possible systematic errors in the evaluation of the
examinations, as well as enabling calculation of the positive predictive
value for the diagnosis of cancer. The professional quality assessment
program can be easily implemented in a busy clinical setting to evaluate
whether mammograms were read consistently and "correctly" and to provide a
method of continuing education for the physicians.
