Designing the Perfect Reading Room for Digital Mammography

Millions of women are screened for breast cancer every year, resulting in tens of millions of x-ray images that need to be read. The reading rooms that are used vary greatly, and many mammographers express concern about the conditions in either their workplace or the workplaces of their colleagues. Now that softcopy mammography screening is becoming commonplace, there is an opportunity to revisit the mammography reading room.

This white paper describes how to design a mammography reading room that will give the best results for screening digital mammograms:

• The fundamental goals of the mammography reading room are covered first, then the design of the work environment. After examining the contrast of mammography film, an explanation of the immense importance of ambient light control follows. Then the relationship between contrast and viewing angle for film, CRT, and LCD displays is discussed and shown graphically. After a brief discussion of quality assurance, a checklist is presented that can be used in the process of planning a perfect reading room.