The breakthrough is that mammography imaging has just gone digital. GE's digital mammography system offers new advantages over film mammography. The number of call backs is reduced. The extra pictures taken that are often needed to see if the breast is normal or not are needed less often because the image can be enhanced with the computer before they are printed on film. Lots of information can be seen with a limited number of pictures.
Less anxiety is generated if fewer pictures are required and results are seen immediately.
With digital mammography, one can electronically manipulate images - zoom in, magnify, optimize different parts of breast tissue with just the 4 standard pictures. Special GE software allows doctors to view the entire breast on one image. Before they needed to take different pictures at different techniques to see things now seen in one picture with digital. The potential for more efficient access to mammograms is possible because images can be transmitted, literally beamed, to another site for printing. Results are seen more quickly.