Background: Remote screening and diagnostic telemammography, while sparsely utilized in the past, has gained significant traction in recent years, offering several potential advantages including improved patient access to high level fellowship-trained breast radiologists as well as efficient turnaround from screening to diagnosis and subsequent treatment of breast cancer. Given the unique challenges of evaluating a breast patient remotely, a discussion of the pearls and pitfalls will help breast imagers gain confidence and improve problem-solving in the telemammography setting.
Learning Objectives: -Discuss the technical, operational, and clinical challenges of establishing a robust telemammography program -Review the benefits and challenges of remote diagnostic telemammography with high-yield case examples -Become familiar with expected and unexpected challenges of remote diagnostic telemammography including real-time communication with technologists and variability of technologists in appropriate mammographic and sonographic imaging acquisition -Provide strategic problem solving tools for breast radiologists in the setting of remote diagnostic telemammography
Abstract Content/Results: This presentation will be centered on a series of cases, inclusive of multimodality imaging from screening and diagnostic mammography, ultrasound, and MRI, aimed to illustrate pertinent challenges of remote diagnostic telemammography. Cases will emphasize the importance of adequate technological requirements, high quality clinical histories, and thinking outside of the box for problem solving in difficult, complex cases as a remote breast radiologist.
Conclusion: Remote screening and diagnostic telemammography is a powerful tool when appropriately utilized. Given the increasing frequency of telemammography nationwide fueled by increasing demands for high level breast imaging coupled with a shortage of fellowship-trained breast radiologists, it is increasingly important for breast radiologists to become familiar with the remote diagnostic workflow and to learn how to optimally adapt their skill set for this unique setting.
