Dear Patient,
Thank you for choosing POM Imaging for your mammography needs. POM has partnered with the radiologists of Women’s Imaging Associates to bring you world-class breast imaging services. We are the physicians who will be reading your mammogram, and there are several items which we want you to know and understand.
- If you have had a mammogram within the past ten years, we need a copy of those images. When a prior study is available for us to use for comparison, we are much less likely to ask you to return for additional pictures. Please help your technologist locate and retrieve those images as quickly as possible.
- Access to your prior mammogram is so important that we will hold your screening mammogram for up to two weeks before reading it to try to obtain the prior images from an outside facility.
- If you return to POM for your next screening mammogram, we will have immediate access to your prior examinations, and the final report will be available within 48 hours.
- When the physician radiologist reads your mammogram, the report will immediately be sent to your physician who requested the examination. The results of the mammogram should be obtained from the referring physician’s office. Within 30 days of the date of your examination, POM will send a letter with results to the home address that you provide.
- About one in ten patients are asked to return for additional views of the breast after a screening mammogram. We then perform a “diagnostic” mammogram to carefully examine an area of the breast that was of concern on the initial screening mammogram. Most of the time the additional views confirm that the area of concern is benign – which means there is nothing present that would suggest cancer. However, in a small number of cases, we suggest that a patient have a biopsy for further investigation.
- Monthly self-examination of the breast is important in addition to mammography. If you feel a new lump in your breast at ANY time after a normal screening mammogram, report this finding to your physician so that the appropriate evaluation can be performed. Mammography can miss some breast cancers. Do not let a recent normal mammogram prevent you from discussing a change in your breasts with your physician.
Annual screening mammography is the most sensitive study that we have for the early detection of breast cancer. We know that the smaller a breast cancer is when it is found, the better the chance for long term survival.
You have an important role to play in maintaining your health. Please be sure to schedule your next annual screening mammogram today, before you leave POM.
All the best,
The Physicians of Women’s Imaging Associates
