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Invited Commentary
November 2015

Is It Time to Stop Paying for Computer-Aided Mammography?

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Family and Community Medicine, Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, and the Cancer Center, University of California, Davis Health System, Sacramento
JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(11):1837-1838. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.5319

Computer-aided detection (CAD) is a technology designed to address the problem of screening mammography’s imperfect sensitivity. Now used on over 90% of US mammograms, CAD essentially acts like an automated second reader by marking potentially suspicious spots for radiologists to review before making final recommendations. Early studies suggested that CAD could increase cancer detection rates by 20%.1 But subsequent research suggested little, if any, impact of CAD on cancer detection and raised concerns that CAD may increase recall and biopsy rates.2,3

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