There need to be more trials before the country invests MEGA $$ on changing to Tomo for population screening. I have that from the 'horse's mouth'. Perhaps this new publication will go towards that. As you can imagine, spending millions of tax payer's money needs to be invested wisely. The 5 week waiting period at the moment in WA - from a suspect mammo result to further assessment is unacceptable. BSWA needs funding to create at least one or two more clinics.
Having said that Dr Liz Wylie (BSWA Medical Director) has indicated that Tomo is likely to be rolled out across the states after the evidence is secured. this will take some time. It is not only the machines that are mosre costly, but they will require more people power, namely the radiologists who read the images. If you can imagine a 2D image - being read as a 'flat' image (4 to look at for each woman), then TOMO is MULTIPLE - each 'slice' of the image (x 4 images) needs to be looked at.
We have great standards at BS in terms of double reads. Every woman's images are read by two radiologists. If ONE radiolofgist doesn't like the look of t=something, whilst the other clears it, a third radiologist is brought in.
I will copy and pasts the journal link and a query about the website statement to BSWA and see what reply I get.
Jo xx
