by
Barbara Kram, Editor | October 10, 2007
"Film screen--
the old stuff--
is still better than
digital and it probably
will be that way
for another eight to
ten years," said
Richard Cooper.
This article is from in the July 2007 issue of DOTmed Business News. A list of registered users that provide sales & service can be found at the end.
According to the FDA, which regulates the equipment under the Mammography Quality Standards Act, the U.S. has 8,832 mammography facilities including
hospitals, imaging centers, and other practices with a total of 13,559 machine units in operation. That certainly seems like a robust industry. However, since 2000, the number of facilities offering mammography is down more than 11 percent and the number of machines is down 4.65 percent.
Blame it in part on imaging reimbursement reductions that are part of the Deficit Reduction Act, now in effect, which reduced Medicare reimbursement to imaging centers and private practices in order to put the payments on a par with hospitals. While hospitals might be in a slightly better position not having experienced the DRA imaging cuts, pressures to contain health care spending have restrained capital investment in the new, digital mammography systems even at hospitals, industry insiders report.
And the anticipated transition to fully direct digital mammography has yet to happen, even though some academic and teaching institutions have taken the plunge. An estimated 16 percent of mammography equipment uses direct digital or the more common computed radiography conversion (see below). That leaves 84 percent of mammography in the traditional analog film format.
Ted Kehtel, Service
Mananger for Innovative
X-Ray Services, making
a service call at a hospital
to repair a Lorad Selenia.
"Mammography is the last holdout of all the diagnostic imaging equipment in terms of analog film technology," said David Denholtz of Integrity Medical Systems, Inc., Fort Myers, Fla. The company specializes in refurbished and new diagnostic imaging and bone densitometry equipment and parts. "The reason [clinicians give for preferring film] is mammography is more of an art versus a science ... and the subtleties of the film are very important. But now the digital technology has advanced and the gurus say digital is better, but still a lot of people argue to hang on to analog."
