Outcome
What is an “outcome” in relation to mammography?
An outcome is the information resulting from an individual’s mammogram imaging and/or diagnostic testing (e.g., biopsy). Mammologix reports these outcomes in the Mammography Medical Outcomes Audit (MMOA).
What are examples of reported data that contribute to clinical/patient outcomes?
Some examples of data that contributes to patient outcomes include:
- Initial assessment results
- Final assessment results
The initial and final assessments could result in a BI-RADS® 0-6 (Needs Additional Imaging, Negative, Benign, Probably Benign, Suspicious, Highly Suggestive of Malignancy, Known Biopsy Proven Malignant) categorization. Resulting benign/malignant findings can provide many points of patient outcome data, such as true positives and true negatives, sensitivity, specificity, etc.
Why are clinical/patient outcomes important?
Mammography outcomes are essential to breast imaging facilities. One of the main reasons facilities should document patient outcomes is to understand both individual physician performance and overall facility performance on measures such as sensitivity, specificity, recall rate, etc. Facilities can compare their performance outcomes with the benchmarks set by major organizations, such as the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium.