Establish the Certification Program for Quality Assurance of Medical Exposure from Mammograpgy in Taiwan

Recently, mammography has become an important tool for early detection of breast cancer. The sensitivity and specificity of the clinical diagnosis by radiologists are directly influenced by the image quality of mammograms. The goal of quality assurance (QA) of mammography is to reach a balance between image quality and radiation dose. There are many elements affecting image quality and dose in mammography exams, which include exposure factors, e.g. patient anatomy, exposure parameters and patient positioning, and equipment factors, e.g. quality and stability of the processor and the mammography unit and the radiology viewing equipment and condition. Only with regular QA testing, one can assure quality of all the above aspects and obtain mammograms with high diagnostic values under the conditions without excessive radiation dose to the patients. For QA procedures and certification standards for mammography units, currently the US system is very comprehensive and a highly worthful reference to our country, which include the mammography quality standard act (MQSA) and the mammography quality control manual published by the American College of Radiology (ACR) in 1999. However, in Taiwan, the medical organizations, common clinical practice and manpower are all quite different from the US. In addition, the breast size and glandularity of Taiwanese can vary significantly from those of western women. Therefore implementation of our own QA certification program and standards are essential for mammography. To achieve this goal, this project propose to accomplish three specific aims within a period of three years, based on the cooperation with the certification program for mammography screening institutions under the Bureau of Health Promotion of the Department of Health: (1) understand the current conditions of screen/film mammography equipment and help establishing corresponding standards; (2) develop methods for estimation of glandularity and help assessing radiation dose from mammography exposures; (3) understand the current conditions of digital mammography equipment and help establishing corresponding standards.

Project ID:PC9706-1042
External Project ID:NSC97-2623-7182-002-NU