HealthDay (7/28, Dotinga) reports that research indicated “women who communicated via social media after a breast cancer diagnosis and received information and/or support about treatment approaches were happier with their ultimate decisions.” The findings were published in JAMA Oncology.

 

Insurance plans and Medicaid providers in Illinois will be required to cover a new technology for breast cancer screenings under a new law approved by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Reuters (7/18, Doyle) reports that research published online in Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that “radiologists don’t agree on what qualifies as ‘dense breasts.’”

SBI Member Dr. Kathryn Pearson Peyton writes about the importance of giving women and physicians access to prior mammograms in order to reduce the number of false positives in an article published in Diagnostic Imaging. "We believe giving women and their physicians access to prior mammograms is crucial to reducing false positives, the callbacks they precipitate along with the concomitant costs to patients, providers, and payers. By reducing the "risks" of mammography screening by simply providing more comparison imaging data, the "benefits" of screening support existing guidelines to begin annual screening at age 40.  But if these new rationed screening protocols are adopted – against the advice of experienced breast doctors and researchers – the stakes for women having access to prior mammograms are raised even higher," said Peyton. 

HealthImaging (7/11, Pearson) reports that research suggests “breast lumps found between scheduled screening mammograms are better evaluated with targeted ultrasound than with repeat mammography, as the latter doesn’t add value beyond the former and so may only increase expense as well as radiation exposure.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.