The recent Webinar Wednesday “Mammography QA Demystified” was sponsored by RTI Group and presented by RTI Training Manager for Product Management and Customer Success Erik Wikström. It was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI.
In the webinar, Wikström discussed the development of mammography units and how they have gone through a dramatic evolution with ever-increasing demands on image quality and reduced dosage.
Originally with molybdenum used for both target and filter, we now see machines with tungsten or rhodium targets and filters of rhodium, silver, aluminum, copper and even gold. We see an increasing number of target/filter combinations as more specific image generation philosophies are introduced including the application of tomography. As a consequence, the QA process has followed a similar path of development with a large part focused on image quality. But demands on the metrological part has also increased and in the webinar, he walked through some of these measurement procedures to better understand them.
Wikström also fielded questions during the webinar. One question asked, “Apart from ACR, EUREF and IAEA are there any other quality standards in use in the world?” He answered yes but also said that unfortunately some places do not have quality standards.
Another question was, “How can you ensure that the specific calibration in your instrument includes proper energy correction?”
He started his answer by stating that they tailor the calibrations to the target filter combinations that appear on the market. The complete answer is available in the recorded webinar available for on-demand viewing.
The webinar drew 126 attendees for the live presentation. A recording of the session is available online for on-demand viewing.
Attendees provided feedback via a survey that included the question, “Why did you attend today’s webinar? And, was it worth your time?”
“I manage people that maintain mammography systems and used to work on them long ago. It was a good refresher and very informative,” HTM Imaging Manager L. McCluskey said.
“I attended the webinar because I deal with a lot of mammo units. The information was very informative,” Area Manager L. Clifford said.
“The topic of today was really interesting, and it was a good way to use the software with this application,” Engineer F. Mercado Zamora aid.
For more information, visit WebinarWednesday.live.
