Swedish Health Services Installs VolparaEnterprise Software to Enhance Mammography Image Quality

Breast Imaging Analytics Software Helps Breast Care Team Deliver Personalized Health with High-Quality Images

SEATTLE, July 9, 2019 – Swedish Health Services and Volpara Solutions today announced the implementation of Volpara^®Enterprise™ software at its network of breast care centers. Swedish, an affiliate of Providence St. Joseph’s Health, performs more than 75,000 mammograms annually at its distributed network of facilities in the Seattle region. In addition to its 10 locations, the program also includes two mobile mammography coaches that service the greater Puget Sound region.

“The driving force behind our decision to implement the VolparaEnterprise software is the vast amount of data analytics it will provide us,” said Karen McInerney, R.T.(R)(M), Director for the Swedish Breast Care Network. “This data, especially the image quality metrics, are a tremendous tool in both our quality improvement and operational efficiency efforts.”

VolparaEnterprise software is the only solution available providing a comprehensive assessment of image quality on every mammogram and tomosynthesis exam, including positioning and compression, which the FDA attributes as the cause of most clinical image deficiencies. The software enables facilities to perform rapid quality control checks that help optimize the productivity and efficiency of imaging resources. Additionally, VolparaEnterprise software has been designed to help facilities comply with the FDA’s new EQUIP initiative.

“By utilizing Volpara to review every image for every technologist in an objective way, we have the key elements for a robust quality improvement structure that exceeds the new MQSA standards. In a large network such as ours, using the power of a software platform is essential,” McInerney added. “Although the initial image quality scores within Volpara were good, there is always room for improvement. As an organization, one of our key values is continuous quality improvement. We have set goals for each of our technologists for the coming year to improve their metrics by at least two percent. Only by continually striving to be better will we meet our goals to provide the best possible exam for our patients.”

Volpara^®Density^™ software, one of the clinical applications within VolparaEnterprise, provides Swedish Health Services’ radiologists with automated, objective volumetric breast density assessments and a breast density category shown to correlate to BI-RADS 4th and 5th editions.

“With the recent passage of the breast density inform law in Washington State and the new federal legislation, the ability to provide an objective, volumetric breast density measurement is extremely important. Not only will the automated breast density assessment enable our radiologists to be more consistent in our messaging to patients from year to year, it will also enable us to more accurately identify high-risk patients that may require adjuvant screening,” McInerney concluded.

#   #   #

About Swedish 

Founded in 1910, Swedish is the largest non-profit health provider in the Greater Seattle area. It is comprised of five hospital campuses (First Hill, Cherry Hill, Ballard, Edmonds and Issaquah); ambulatory care centers in Redmond and Mill Creek; and a network of more than 100 primary care and specialty-care clinics located throughout the Greater Puget Sound area. Swedish is known as a regional referral center, providing specialized treatment in areas such as cardiovascular care, cancer care, neuroscience, orthopedics, high-risk obstetrics, pediatric specialties, organ transplantation and clinical research. In 2018, Swedish provided more than $237 million in community benefit programs, including $23.8 million in free and discounted care in Western Washington. For more information, visit www.swedish.org.

About Volpara Solutions

Volpara Solutions is the wholly owned sales and marketing arm of Volpara Health Technologies Limited of New Zealand. Available in most markets where breast cancer screening is commonplace, VolparaDensity provides an objective volumetric measure of breast density from both digital mammography and tomosynthesis data. VolparaEnterprise is a suite of quantitative breast imaging tools for personalized measurements of density, patient-specific x-ray dose, breast compression, breast positioning, and other factors designed to provide critical insight for breast imaging workflow. The Volpara^®Live!™ system provides technologists with real-time decision support at the point of care to assess image quality. For more information, visit www.volparasolutions.com.

Media Contact: