Aunt Minnie’s Spring 2021 Virtual Conference was a celebration of recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) — from clinical applications in screening mammography to the challenges of AI data management to its uses in the COVID-19 pandemic. One such presentation, hosted by the Director at Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute Shakira Sarquis-Kolber, centered on how AI can be used to manage breast center image quality.
Located in Palm Beach, Florida, Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute has a large patient base, conducting 35,000 mammograms and 13,000 breast ultrasounds in 2019. Their emphasis on a holistic screening approach led them to work with Volpara Health, adopting Volpara’s AI-driven software to facilitate individualized care for each of their patients. Alongside Volpara, the team of 9 radiologists and 30 technologists has access to objective breast density assessment, risk modeling, and image quality management.
Volpara’s TruDensity® algorithm reduces reader variability and provides objective, consistent density assessments, calculated automatically and on a continuous scale. Armed with precise volumetric density percentages, the radiologists at Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute are able to make more personalized screening recommendations for their patients. In fact, they built a robust ultrasound program from the ground up, seeing a 75% increase in breast ultrasound screening after using TruDensity to stratify and refer patients based on their high breast density.
In addition to risk stratification, Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute maintains the highest standard of care by consistently evaluating their image quality. Volpara Analytics software automatically assesses the quality of each mammogram and generates weekly pulse checks and monthly updates so each technologist can review their positioning and compression trends and identify areas for improvement. This facilitates a positive and uplifting culture of self-improvement, according to Sarquis-Kolber. Finally, Volpara’s quarterly quality summaries can be used for MQSA EQUIP submissions.
Additionally, using further metrics provided by Volpara, such as exam room use and exam time, Sarquis-Kolber reported that the Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute was able to increase the capacity of the imaging center by 20%.
All told, Volpara’s AI platform toolbox has boosted Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute into the top 10% of Volpara users, with quality and accuracy metrics — such as positive biopsy rates — far above the national averages. At the end of the day though, Sarquis-Kolber says, AI like Volpara really just helps get them closer to their end goal: saving women’s lives.
To learn more about Volpara’s clinical decision support tools, watch Sarquis-Kolber’s full presentation at the link below.
