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An Amateur's View of MQSA. Victor E. Anderson, C.H.P. Radiologic Health Branch California Department of Health Services. The Circle Problem. Inspectors are required by eye to determine if a part is “out of round”, e.g., not a circle. Not a hard process, unless you define “roundness.”.
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An Amateur's View of MQSA Victor E. Anderson, C.H.P. Radiologic Health Branch California Department of Health Services
The Circle Problem • Inspectors are required by eye to determine if a part is “out of round”, e.g., not a circle. • Not a hard process, unless you define “roundness.”
Mammography • Similar problem: • Is it a cancer or ? • Some Factors • Quality of image • Skill of interpreter • Size of tumor mass • Physical/Psychological
Problem • Screening test. • Not expected to detect every tumor • When does the interpreter and system fail? • Easy answer: does it meet MQSA Standards? • What about false negatives and positives?
Facility Failure • How bad is bad? • Or “How many cancers went undetected that should have been seen?” • Two interrelated areas: • Physical factors (“Physics”) • Ability of the Interpreter
Review Actions • How far back in time does the problem go? • Previous inspections • Clinical Image Reviews • MQSA records • Image Quality • Interpreter skill (Additional Mammography Review)
How Many? • Typically 30 additional cases. • Breast Cancer Rate • Various with age • About 0.008 on the average per screening • Out of 1,000 cases, eight may have detectable cancer!
Rates and Sampling • Mammography facilities see lots of patients. • As much as 20 per day per machine. • About 100 per week per machine. • A ten machine facility could find about eight cases per week. • What is bad?
False Negatives • Indications are that • For every eight • About two will be missed. • Given a poorly performing facility • How many films to review? • How bad is bad?
How Far Back? • Ideally no further than last inspection. • Indicators • Daily checks • Physics reports • Referrals • CIR • AMR
One Testing Solution • Make a time estimate. • Using average rates, determine number of cases seen. • Total number of films. • How big a sample?
Sample Size • Mil spec tables or AQL • Period of potential sub standard performance is 10 weeks. • Four machine facility. • 4,000 patients. • AQL table indicates 200 samples with an acceptance level of one false negative. • And a rejection level of two false negatives.
Issues • Cost of sample size. • What is at stake? • Rational assurance that proper screening occurred. • Follow up
Conclusions • MQSA provides good QA/QC • Need Sampling scheme to follow up. • Provide rational basis for extent of a problem with respect to time. • How many patients to notify? • Aid in corrective actions.
References • False-negative breast screening assessment: what lessons can we learn?, Burrell HC, Evans AJ, Wilson AR, Pinder SE., Clin Radiol 2001 May;56(5):385-8 • Comparison of full-field digital mammography with screen-film mammography for cancer detection: results of 4,945 paired examinations., Lewin JM, Hendrick RE, D'Orsi CJ, Isaacs PK, Moss LJ, Karellas A, Sisney GA, Kuni CC, Cutter GR., Radiology 2001 Mar;218(3):873-80 • The evaluation of false negative mammography from malignant and benign breast lesions., Wang J, Shih TT, Hsu JC, Li YW., Clin Imaging 2000 Mar-Apr;24(2):96-103