Maintaining Quality Standards for Breast Imaging Amid Rising Imaging Volumes: An Interview with Deepa Sheth, MD

Citing recent data from the American Cancer Society suggesting that breast cancer incidence may be affecting one in seven women in the near future and improved awareness of dense breasts being an independent risk factor for breast cancer, breast radiologist Deepa Sheth, M.D., emphasized the need for consistent quality in breast cancer imaging in a recent interview with Diagnostic Imaging.

When Prime Healthcare acquired eight health-care facilities in Illinois this summer, they utilized the CIVIE RadPod platform to help ensure that all breast imaging for these facilities was interpreted by fellowship-trained breast radiologists. Dr. Sheth noted that utilizing a cloud-based PACS platform facilitates uniformity in standards, quality and reporting, not to mention health equity.

“ … Community hospitals that previously (may) have been forgotten or not given as much attention now get our 100 percent attention. We have made uniform diagnostic schedules across the board. We have uniform biopsy trays across the board. We all give the same recommendations now that follow the BI-RADS lexicon. I would like to say that we've really brought the quality up for all these and we give these patients the care that they deserve,” maintained Dr. Sheth, the chair of women’s imaging for CIVIE.

In the year since federally mandated breast density notification became a reality on mammography reports, Dr. Sheth noted a “greater sense of awareness” among patients.

“It makes me super excited as a breast rad because that’s what we want. We want our patients to be educated and empowered about their breast health,” added Sheth, a breast radiologist affiliated with Cross Country Healthcare in Chicago.

With greater interest in MRI screening for women with dense breasts, Dr. Sheth emphasized the importance of streamlining breast MRI exams to reduce patient discomfort and meet the rising demand for the exams.

“We really want to cut this (MRI) timeline down because one of the things is these women are on their stomachs for this procedure. It's just not very comfortable. How do you recommend this every single year if you're not making this exam (something) they are wanting to come back for? We've really curtailed (the breast MRI) down to 15 minutes in and out,” noted Dr. Sheth.

(Editor’s note: For related content, see “Mammography Study Shows Elevated Future Breast Cancer Risk with Initial Concordance of Radiologist and AI Interpretation,” “Echogenic Rind on Breast Ultrasound Associated with High Specificity for Malignancy” and “Assessing the Utility of mpMRI for Enhancing Diagnostic Clarity with Suspicious Calcifications from Mammography Exams.”)

For more insights from Dr. Sheth, watch the video below.