As we progress through our digital mammography implementation, new questions are being raised every day.  We often are provided responses to our questions through the vendor however, I feel as though some vendors are quick to provide answers that steer us in the path of least resistance for them.

 

The specific instance that we are experiencing this time is the question of what to do with Mammography CAD data.  What is the standard of care in the Mammography world regarding the use of CAD in digital mammography?

 

As we begin the implementation of a digital mammography department, we are faced with the decision of how to handle CAD markings on digital images.  We are being told that nobody stores CAD marking because of the liability that if CAD identifies a spot on an image and that spot is not worked up by the radiologist and it proves to be positive, they can be held liable.

 

Now, I am of the school of thought that if you make mention of a spot identified by CAD and the CAD overlay is not stored, we can also be held liable as we cannot reproduce the images that identified an area of interest anyway.

 

We have had this discussion with the risk management group in our organization and it was stated that we have to identify the standard of care through evaluating what others are doing who have been using such CAD systems.

 

So, I am interested in hearing how everybody is handling CAD overlays in their digital mammography environment.

 

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