Sectra participating in British Breast Screening Programme

The Sectra Mammography stand is now up and running at the Coventry and Warwick Hospital in Coventry, UK. The system is being evaluated at the hospital by the Breast Screening Service, which is also one of the UK’s national training centers for breast imaging. The Sectra Mammography stand has been installed in a mobile screening trailer and will be evaluated for a six-month period.

All medical equipment to be used by the UK Breast Screening Programme needs to be formally evaluated and the Sectra micro dose mammography stand is currently progressing through this accreditation procedure. After compliance and safety testing, the unit underwent clinical comparison against conventional mammography imaging, which requires at least 50 clinical cases showing cancer or abnormality. With this now successfully completed, the Sectra stand is being evaluated for routine screening for breast cancer. Monday, April 4 was the first day that the unit went into routine screening operation. Neil Emery, Commercial Manager for Sectra UK, commented, “It’s good to see that the Sectra system is progressing rapidly with its evaluation. We are very fortunate to be working with the Breast Screening Service at Coventry, not only because of there professional approach to the evaluation, but also that their excellent reputation within the breast screening community adds credibility to our evaluation.” There are over 90 breast screening units across the UK, each currently serving an average population of around 45,000 women. The women are invited to a specialised screening unit, which can either be mobile, hospital-based or permanently based in another convenient location such as a shopping center. The majority of screening is carried out from screening units that are mobile, which is why Sectra have chosen to evaluate the system in a mobile environment. In England, the budget for the breast screening program, including the actual cost of screening, is approximately £52 million per annum. According to the program, more than 14 million women have been screened and over 80,000 cancers have been detected since the start in 1988. At the Coventry and Warwick Hospital the evaluation of the Sectra stand is supervised by Dr Matthew Wallis, Clinical Director of the Warwickshire, Solihull & Coventry Breast Screening Service. Dr Wallis, who has worked with the UK Breast Screening Programme since its conception in 1988, will also speak about the program at the inauguration of Sectra‘s new facilities in Kista, outside Stockholm, on April 14.