Clinicians and vendors build bridges in support of digital mammography

I saw the article that you coauthored on the digital breast imaging forum at SCAR ("Breast imagers come out swinging against digital mammography vendors," diagnosticimaging.com/scar2005/, June 7, 2005. An expanded version appears in the SCAR Conference Reporter, this issue, page 54). I am very happy that you were there and interested in digital mammography. Also, I am pleased that you described the struggles we are having on the clinical side so accurately.

However, I feel that your article has misrepresented the tone of the meeting. You state that the vendors were cornered-actually, they were not. Everyone was invited to come, and the agenda was widely available to all, including the vendors, who supported the forum and its goals with time and funding. The vendors have been amazingly willing to help us fix the issues that we are facing. As we continue through this process, factual journalism is important to publicize the developments, but sensationalized coverage just serves to disrupt the fragile bridges that we are all trying to form in order to solve our problems. I feel that your article, while containing some facts, has partially undone some of the partnership that we are working so hard to form.

-Rita Zuley, M.D.

Elizabeth Wende Breast Clinic

Rochester, NY