Non-White patients much less likely to get same-day mammogram readings at major hospital

Non-White women were only 30 percent as likely as White women to receive same-day mammogram readings and then diagnostic imaging to follow up abnormal mammogram results at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2019.

The need to come back for a second visit for the diagnostic imaging contributes to disparities in the time it takes for a breast cancer diagnosis.

In 2020, the Hospital successfully initiated an immediate-read screening program which provided the mammogram results and diagnostic imaging before women left the Hospital. The result was no longer differences in which women received same-day follow-up tests or in how long it tool to diagnose breast cancer.

• See “Faster Diagnoses Found From Same-Day Mammogram Readings” by Marie Rosenthal on the Clinical Oncology website (September 14 2021)
• See the abstract of the scientific paper “Disparities in Same-Day Diagnostic Imaging in Breast Cancer Screening: Impact of an Immediate-Read Screening Mammography Program Implemented During the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Brian N. Dontchos et al.