European Guidelines For Quality Assurance In Mammography Screening 2nd Edition

The National Screening Service today published its, a set of quality assurance requirements and standards for each element of the programme. There are over 1.1 million women aged 25-60 in Ireland who are eligible for the CervicalCheck programme.The Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Cervical Screening are the result of a collaborative process across representatives of each step of the cervical screening process and include Programme Administration, Primary Care, Cytopathology, Histopathology and Colposcopy.Majella Byrne, Head of National Screening Service commented: “The new ‘Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Cervical Screening’ reflect the evolution of the programme and cervical screening in recent years. Similar to other population-based screening programmes, to achieve maximum public health benefit from a population-based cervical cancer screening programme, every aspect of the service delivered to women must be fully quality assured. Regular cervical screening can reduce cervical cancer mortality.Quality assurance is the foundation on which a successful programme is built. From initial invitation, through screening and treatment every individual involved at every step of the screening process must adhere to the highest standards set by the Programme. No screening test is 100 per cent accurate, that is why we must ensure that the service delivered to women in Ireland is one in which they can have undoubted confidence.”Over time, a successful national, quality assured cervical screening programme in Ireland has the potential to reduce current incidence rates of cervical cancer by up to 80 per cent per annum in the screened population.-Ends-For further information:Ms Sheila Caulfield, Head of Communications, National Screening ServiceMs Aoife O’Sullivan, Communications Executive, National Screening ServiceTel: 01-865 9300.

Physico-Technical Protocol

5th Edition

4th Edition

Radiologists can use outcome data such as cancer size and stage to determine how well their own practice provides benefit to their patients and can use measures such as screening recall rates and positive predictive values to assess how well adverse consequences are being contained. New data on national benchmarks for screening and diagnostic mammography in the United States allow radiologists to evaluate their own performance with respect to their peers. This article discusses recommended outcome values in the United States and Europe, current Mammography Quality Standards Act audit requirements, and Institute of Medicine proposals for future requirements. Previous article in issue. Next article in issue.