When it comes to breast imaging, the professionals at West Coast Breast Centers (WCBC) in Orange County, CA, believe that best-fit technology equals better care. When WCBC's parent practice, West Coast Radiology Centers, expanded to include a dedicated breast care group; they extended that philosophy to the newest segment of their practice and launched WCBC as a fully digital operation. While the general imaging arm of the practice used digital imaging across modalities, the mammography side of the business used analog technology. Branching out into WCBC changed all that.

In establishing a dedicated breast imaging practice, Executive Director Tim Chavez noted that it was critically important "to provide the best technology that would allow our radiologists to provide the best quality interpretation." For mammography, that choice was the Hologic direct-capture technology. "After looking at the various vendors we felt that the Selenia digital mammography system was the best on the market," Chavez explained. "The plate technology is better on the Selenia and the workflow for the technologists and radiologists is superior."

Workflow was a key consideration for the busy practice, which serves 150 patients each day at two sites and takes 40,000 mammograms in a year. "Compared to analog which required performing the exam, going to the darkroom, scanning the film for CAD and then hand carrying the images to the radiologist, we are now much more efficient," Chavez noted. "The digital package, moves seamlessly and the communication between technologists and radiologists is much faster."

Samantha Kubaska, MD, WCBC's medical director, concurred. "From a technologist and patient point of view, our ability to get the patient in and out of the office has become faster." Because images are taken and viewed instantly, there's no need to take the patient in and out of the room for additional views or keep patients waiting while films are processed. "With digital equipment, images pop up on the monitor quickly while the technologist is still in the room with the patient. The exam time can be reduced up to 50 percent."

That efficiency pleases her patients, too. "If for some reason the patient moved or positioning wasn't optimal, the technologist can see that right then and there, and respond appropriately. When the patients are done, they are free to go. You hear patients in the hallway saying 'Is that it? I can go?' and they love it from a screening point of view."