The versatility of BMD screening makes a difference in Phoenix

For a radiology practice that performs nearly 250 bone mineral density studies a week, consistent performance is essential. Just ask Tammy Sanchez, RT(R),CDT quality assurance manager and mammography/ bone densitometry coordinator at Valley Radiologists in Phoenix, Arizona. Overseeing ten offices in metro and suburban Phoenix, Tammy saw the benefit of a single-vendor approach to DXA imaging technology early on.

In 2004, Valley’s merger with Scottsdale Medical Imaging to form Southwest Diagnostic Imaging necessitated an evaluation of the practice’s DXA equipment. “We chose to go with one vendor,” Tammy explained, “because our goal is for our results and information to be as accurate as possible. When you’re trending a patient you want to stay with one manufacturer.”

When you’re trending a patient you want to stay with one manufacturer

“We do about 13,000 BMD studies a year,” Tammy said. “With such a vigorous workload, trending patient information is a critical aspect of the work being done at Valley Radiologists. And we do more than just osteoporosis studies. We’re very fortunate to have some really attentive referring physician groups, like pediatric groups.” In fact, approximately 8-10% of the DXA patients at Valley’s Glendale office are children between the ages of 10 and 16. Young patients are most often screened for osteogenesis imperfecta, a group of genetic syndromes more commonly known as brittle bone disease. “For most of these cases, we do a pediatric whole body study and give a bone mineral content score every two years.”

Valley also participants in clinical trials. A recent blinded study measured the effect of particular treatments on young children with pituitary cancer, using whole body studies and body mass index testing.

Valley is currently involved in lipoprotein studies of HIV patients, pediatric patients, and adults receiving chemotherapy. “Until this year the company had asked me to be the only technologist that handles the DXA clinical trials because they wanted consistency,” Tammy points out, “but I got to a point where I needed to teach others how to do them. I think it benefits the technologists because they become more attentive to precision and accuracy.”

Tammy believes the Hologic Discovery W (whole body) system gives Valley Radiologists the precision they require for participation in clinical trials as well as in their daily workload. “The Discovery system is very user-friendly,” she noted. “There are a lot of automated processes and you want to rely on those as much as possible, so that it’s consistent every time the patient comes in. If you have your positioning correct, your automatic analysis should work very well.”