Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Debate over the value of mammography screening is starting to resemble a tennis match, with contradictory studies being lobbed back and forth. This week, mammography proponents are in the ascendancy with a new study supporting the screening of younger women. The research is being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco.
Michigan researchers examined the effectiveness of screening mammography and breast self-exams in women older than 50 and for those ages 40 to 49 years, with the explicit goal of examining the impact of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's controversial 2009 guidelines on screening younger women.
Both screening mammography and breast self-exams had value, with mammography appearing more effective in older women and the two techniques performing about even in the younger cohort. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found that women with palpable tumors had more advanced cancer.
Get the rest of the details by clicking here, and return to our Women's Imaging Digital Community for more coverage of the ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium, where associate editor Kate Madden Yee is on hand filing daily reports.
RT vacancy rates drop
If you're a hotel owner, a low vacancy rate is a good thing. But not so much if you're a radiologic technologist (RT) looking for work.
This week, the American Society of Radiologic Technologists issued its annual survey on job vacancy rates for RTs, and it's not a pretty picture. The vacancy rate dropped to 2.1% this year, the eighth straight year of decline and a sharp drop from 10.3% in 2003, when the organization began tracking vacancy rates.
The news means that there are fewer jobs out there for radiologic technologists. And imaging facilities appear to be doing more with less, with the average number of full-time RTs per site falling as well.
Get more details by clicking here, or visit our Imaging Leaders Digital Community at leaders.auntminnie.com.
