Abstract
National standardization of both examination procedures and reading of results is imperative for ultrasonographic breast cancer screening. A questionnaire study was carried out, focusing on applied technicians taking the 2010 training courses sponsored by the Japan Association of Breast and Thyroid Sonology. Such training courses for technicians were carried out 6 times in 2010. Based on the results of the questionnaire study, my proposals for improving the quality control of ultrasonographic breast cancer screening are as follows: 1. Qualifications of the cancer screening sonographer: Only applicants who have attended the training course and have been evaluated as B or above at the examination should be qualified for screening. At present, compared to the number of qualified mammography technicians, such qualified sonographers are much fewer than the number needed. Therefore we must consider how to increase the number of qualified sonographers. 2. Ultrasonographic examination procedure: The fundamental method of ultrasonographic examination for breast cancer screening appears to be almost uniform for training courses under the guidance of the Society. The extent to which a sonographer may read the findings must be discussed. 3. Ultrasonographic examination time and the number of examinees: In order to perform high-quality sonographic examination, it is recommended that the time taken to examine the bilateral breasts of one examinee should be 5 min or longer; a longer time is required for less experienced sonographers, and the total number of examinees per day should be 40 or less. Usually, 8 applicants are scanned per hour, and the daily examination time should not exceed 5 hours. After performing examinations for one hour, each sonographer should take a break for about 10 min. The total examination time per day should not exceed 5 hours. The maximum continuous examination time should be less than３hours, even if a 10-min break is taken hourly.
