Nearly everyone has heard about a young woman diagnosed with breast cancer just weeks or months after a reassuring screening mammogram. 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.
Many women do, though.
As a result, the growing malpractice threat, along with relatively low reimbursement rates, has dimmed mammography's appeal to radiologists. 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. Md. Radiologists are the most frequent defendants.