It happened to Barbara Brenner twice. In 1993, at age 41, Brenner had a clean mammogram in June and found a cancerous lump in October. After undergoing a lumpectomy, she asked her surgeon to look at her original screening mammograms and tell her why the tumor hadn t been detected. Her surgeon spotted the cancerous cells. But, Brenner says, the doctor told her than you can t blame anyone for missing a snowball in a blizzard.
Many women do, though.
As a result, the growing malpractice threat, along with relatively low reimbursement rates, has dimmed mammography s appeal to radiologists. Although more women are getting screening mammograms an estimated 25 million a year fewer radiologists want to read them. That could be a good thing for women if radiologists who usually read only a minimum number of mammograms get out of the business. That would leave the job to those more experienced. But some people fear that the situation could lead to long waits or long drives for mammograms.