Imaging standards in the national breast screening programme

It is evident that a very wide range of factors must be taken into account in order to define and provide appropriate imaging standards in mammography. These include equipment specification, system assessment and calibration, quality assurance and radiographic skill. Within the context of a screening programme, the appropriateness of the standards adopted must ultimately be linked with satisfactory outcomes against programme objectives for detection. With regard to the digitisation of film mammograms for the purpose of applying objective diagnostic techniques, it would seem wise to note that the information content of mammograms is subject to variation due to many contributing factors and that, as a consequence, the outcome of applied analytical methods is liable to be influenced by this variation in source material