Full breast digital mammography (FBDM) has begun to fulfill its promise as a better way to perform diagnostic and screening mammography. Digital mammography permits computer image manipulation, computer-aided diagnosis, and electronic image transfer. These are the successes, but today there is a need for a display modality that is compatible with digital mammograms. There are two possibilities: laser-printed film and the interactive grayscale workstation. Each is a compromise, compared to original FBDM data. The laser-printed film does not permit a full range of computer enhancements, while the grayscale workstation does not present enough images, nor enough spatial resolution. Each choice has serious economic implications. There are many scientific tasks on the road to finding an optimum way to use the displays in mammographic interpretation. The objective of this research is to find a good set of parameters for putting the image in front of the mammographer, to test the diagnostic accuracy of the chosen parameters, comparing the two modalities, to create a model that will enable us to see how the choices of display modality affect examination throughput and, therefore, cost. The applicants proposed to collect 40 normal and 40 abnormal full breast digital FBDM examinations, create protocols for the laser-film printer and the grayscale monitor, and test the protocols with the FBDM examinations. They proposed to develop a model, which includes diagnostic accuracy, throughput and cost, and use the data collected with the mammographic examination interpretation to refine the model. They would then collect 100 normal and 100 abnormal examinations to test the chosen protocols for the display modalities for their diagnostic accuracy and their throughput rates.
