Robotic WideField Breast Ultrasound Tomography Platform
FocusWest Health begins to assemble its unique medical team, composed of international experts in key areas.
Quality improvement
Comments from technologists following a recent QI program for a private facility: “Thank you so much for all of the wonderful knowledge and teaching…” “We gained a lot of knowledge…” “…instruction tips and evaluation of my images will definitely help me get better images and be a better mammographer.”
QI program produces measurable results
Follow-up data from the QI program at Stanford University's breast imaging section confirms a significant decrease in repeat and additional images. Images are more consistent, less technologist time is required, less room time is required, and there is better patient flow, satisfaction, and major cost savings.
Dr. Kivitz presents a QI program at Stanford
Dr. Kivitz presents a QI program for the Stanford University breast imaging section. The mammography technologist material covers positioning and MQSA standards, followed by supervised hands-on positioning of mammography patients; each case is discussed and critiqued with the technologists.
Later in the day, Dr. Kivitz lectures the radiologists — including faculty, fellows, and residents — to establish uniform standards of expectation for clinical images. Without uniform expectations from the radiologists, technologists may be confused and quality may falter. This is one of several presentations on quality and MQSA that Dr. Kivitz presents before the breast imaging section of Stanford University.
“A Global Focus on Breast Cancer”
Dr. Kivitz's letter to the New York Times, commenting on a recent article about breast cancer in Africa, stresses the importance of education in all populations. He reminds readers that it was not so long ago in the United States that most women rarely told anyone when they were diagnosed with breast cancer; it was felt by many to be a stigma. As science progresses, we sometimes lose sight of the emotional and unseen impact and scars.
Ormylia Foundation & University of Pennsylvania collaboration
Dr. Kivitz and his wife, Susan T. Marx, attend a reception at the Athens home of the United States Ambassador to Greece, Daniel B. Smith, and Mrs. Diane Smith, to celebrate a new collaboration between the Ormylia Foundation Panagia Philanthropini and the University of Pennsylvania Global Center for Women's and Children's Health. They are invited because of their efforts arranging this collaboration — Dr. K has been involved with the Ormylia Center since 2000, and his wife, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, learned of the newly created Global Center through the School of Nursing.
Because of Ms. Marx's work matching non-profits to possible funders, she suggests the Global Center consider Ormylia as a possible affiliate. After a May 2012 visit to Ormylia by Dr. Lynn Sommers, who heads the Global Center, she and Brother Charles Anthony work together to create a formal collaboration. Prior to the Ambassador's reception, Dr. Sommers and several associates give the first three-day course at Ormylia.
NMPOA breast cancer screening project audit
Dr. Kivitz spends the week auditing the NMPOA breast cancer screening project, which he has been supervising since 2003. Along with image quality reviews, statistical reports, recall rates, quality control, physicists' reports, and other standards, he finds the Brazilian center continues to maintain standards comparable to an MQSA-qualified US facility.
Dr. Kivitz reviews many patient charts diagnosed with cancer. Because of earlier diagnosis, many of the women fortunately do not need chemotherapy — previously, most women's cancers were found at late stages requiring chemotherapy. The study of almost 10,000 women at this center continues for several more years before final data are available; preliminary data are very exciting.
New mammography equipment donated
Dr. Kivitz travels to the health center in Ormylia, Greece, which recently installed two new mammography machines. During prior visits he saw the need for new equipment and approached Hologic, which was receptive and donated the new machines. Working with technologists and radiologists, the transition to the new machines and images is smooth and complete.
“The Debate Over Routine Mammograms”
Much has been written challenging the economic value of screening mammograms. But mammography certainly has a critical role in the quality of life for most patients, because breast conservation is possible with early diagnosis.
Fifty years ago every breast cancer, regardless of its size, was treated by surgically removing the entire breast, the underlying muscles, and all of the underarm lymph nodes, as well as with radiation and chemotherapy. Today, such surgery is much less common. Chemotherapy can often be avoided when cancer has not spread beyond the breast. That means a quicker return to normal daily life, at work and home, without the side effects.
Women who are routinely screened may have saved not only their lives but also their breasts. — Philip B. Kivitz, MD, San Francisco, Oct. 27, 2011. The writer is an adjunct clinical professor of radiology at Stanford University Medical Center.
Joint ICTP–IAEA Advanced Course on Mammography
Invited by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) to be the keynote speaker and only radiologist for a meeting of medical physicists from developing countries worldwide. Approximately 50 attendees from 32 countries are chosen from hundreds of applicants. Dr. Kivitz's presentations focus on global issues of breast cancer, MQSA quality standards, and new breast imaging techniques. Italian newspapers cover the events.
Other speakers, all medical physicists, present on topics ranging from basic breast imaging equipment testing to comprehensive evaluations of breast imaging facilities for equipment standards and image quality — practices proven critical for the best breast cancer detection in the western world. Dr. Kivitz is invited to discuss the medical physicist's pivotal role in giving technologists the ability to produce the best images, presenting the radiologist with the best opportunity to find the smallest cancers.
In his closing remarks, Dr. Kivitz asks participants to become instruments of change for the women in their respective countries, stressing the importance of the medical physicist in making it possible for radiologists to have the best breast images with the lowest radiation dose to women.
Webinar: Breast Cancer and Innovative Engineering and Entrepreneurship
Dr. Kivitz participates in a global webinar stressing the importance of breast cancer as a worldwide problem. With significant differences between the developed and developing world, the global importance of breast cancer is a fertile area for innovative solutions to frequent problems.
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