Standardized, Consistent Breast Positioning Techniques are Critical for Optimal Cancer Detection: Training Videos Address Positioning Performance Issues Identified by Volpara Enterprise Software
LAS VEGAS, April 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Volpara Solutions, Inc. and leading mammography education provider, Mammography Educators, LLC (“Mammography Educators”), announced the launch of Louise Miller’s training videos designed to make mammography positioning better. The training videos have been integrated in the company’s Volpara®Enterprise™ software, the only solution currently available that provides a comprehensive assessment of image quality on every screening mammogram.
Mammography Educators partnered with Volpara to enhance VolparaEnterprise software with embedded training modules. Designed to improve the quality of breast imaging using proven techniques in mammography positioning, the videos will provide multiple levels of technologist training, with positioning overviews for the CC and MLO projections as well as for common positioning performance issues. Topics include: excessive exaggeration, nipple in profile, assuring adequate length for the posterior nipple line, inframammary fold, and the length and shape of pectoralis muscle.
“Proper breast positioning is critical for optimal cancer detection, but difficult to assess manually. We are excited to partner with Volpara to make these targeted training videos for more than a dozen common positioning performance issues that can be routinely identified using VolparaEnterprise software,” said Louise Miller, R.T.(R)(M)(ARRT), CRT, FSBI, FNCBC, Director of Education and co-founder of Mammography Educators. “These videos are designed to help improve image quality in a way that is consistent, reproducible and ergonomically sound.”
“I expect these videos to help focus our training efforts. I’ve been peer reviewing technologists for many years, providing feedback and tips on such techniques as obtaining the Inframammary fold, with mixed results. Being able to walk through a formal training process from awareness of what the problem is, to discovery, to learning new techniques to having the technologists be able to review her performance based on her own images, can have a real long-term impact. This is a completely different way to drive training results,” said Lori Keiper, Clinical Specialist and Women’s Imaging Coordinator at St. Luke’s University Health Network.
VolparaEnterprise software features a Technologist dashboard, which enables each mammography technologist to monitor her own performance and self-train. In addition, the Lead Technologist now sees a Quality Quadrant diagram that summarizes patient positioning and compression performance by each technologist, helping to identify training opportunities.
“We have been using VolparaEnterprise to redefine how to track and trend our technologist’s quality and facility workflow. VolparaEnterprise has provided our Institute with amazing objective, analytic capability which has allowed us to applaud the team’s strengths and use them to facilitate collaborative growth, while identifying opportunities that we individualize by technologist. We have seen continued and sustained improvements as a result of this program,” said Maureen Mann, Executive Director of Boca Raton Regional Hospital’s Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute in Florida.
VolparaEnterprise software delivers key performance indicators for hundreds of performance and quality metrics, including patient positioning and compression, which are widely viewed as the causes of most clinical image deficiencies, and associated with delayed detection of breast cancer. VolparaEnterprise software enables breast centers to perform rapid quality control checks that help optimize the productivity and efficiency of imaging resources. This in turn helps decrease costs through the reduction of retakes, increase employee effectiveness, and enhance the patient experience.
Volpara Solutions will showcase VolparaEnterprise software and its suite of quantitative breast imaging tools, which includes VolparaDensity software, the most clinically validated 3D Density solution, at the 2018 SBI/ACR Breast Imaging Symposium, April 12-15, 2018. (Booth #215).
About Mammography Educators
Mammography Educators provides on-site, hands-on mammography positioning training for technologists, in addition to other consulting services, to assist breast centers with accreditation, inspection preparation, and improve image quality. Furthermore, they lead conferences throughout the US and Canada, and provide Mammography Initial Training in California, led by Director of Education, Louise Miller. Ms. Miller has received numerous prestigious awards in her role as breast imaging educator. She developed The Miller Method™, providing technologists with an understanding of correlational anatomy that compliments the technologists’ training in general radiology principles. This, combined with her updated, standardized positioning technique for use with FFDM and DBT, has been proven to show a significant improvement in image quality. Mammography Educators’ mission is to develop high-quality, consistent methods of breast imaging through unique and engaging educational services and products. For more information, visit www.mammographyeducators.com.
About Volpara Solutions
Founded with the goal of helping radiologists give women the most accurate information possible regarding their breast health, Volpara Solutions is the wholly owned sales and marketing arm of Volpara Health Technologies Limited of New Zealand. Available in most markets where breast cancer screening is commonplace, VolparaDensity provides an objective volumetric measure of breast density from both digital mammography and tomosynthesis data. VolparaEnterprise is a suite of quantitative breast imaging tools for personalized measurements of density, patient-specific x-ray dose, breast compression, breast positioning and other factors designed to provide critical insight for breast imaging workflow. For more information, visit www.volparasolutions.com.
