GAINESVILLE, Fla., Jan 17 , 2023  — The earliest and most frequent sign of breast cancer is a lump or lesion, often self-detected.^{1, 2, 3} There was however, no known way to measure or confirm whether a patient’s health provider possessed the clinical skills required to palpate and confirm the presence of the self-reported breast lesion or lump. ^{4, 5, 6} Without verifiable clinical skills the exam is often deferred or conducted haphazardly.

In response, MammaCare® created the first digital technology that automatically calculates, analyzes and corrects the breast exam skills of healthcare providers, nursing and medical students before they begin examining patients. The Clinical Breast Exam Simulator-Trainer instantly measures and documents core competency levels: sensitivity (detecting small suspicious lesions), specificity (false positive detections), thoroughness (percent of tissue examined and missed), and reports the search pattern(s) performed.

In practice, a clinician or student simply logs on to the web portal and begins examining a series of cloud-connected breast models containing replicas of excised breast cancers. The online training program guides the examiner’s fingers as they learn to positively identify sub-centimeter breast lumps while learning to avoid false positive detections.

When performance does not meet built-in standards, the system automatically presents feedback about the deficiency and requests the examiner to try again. The additional practice enables virtually all users to pass each module by the second or third attempt. Data from the first 3000 participants in colleges of nursing, medicine and breast cancer early detection programs verify significant improvement in each of the core breast exam competencies noted above. 

Mark Kane Goldstein, Ph.D. MammaCare Foundation Sr. Scientist reported: “A few hours of practice, using any computer connected to the Trainer will measurably improve a provider’s ability to confirm and report suspicious breast lesions for further diagnostic workup.” He added: “Strong evidence now indicates that merging the human tactile sensory system with advanced engineering technology supports the early detection of breast cancer.” ^7, 8

The MammaCare Foundation

(352) 375.0607 MammaCare Lab

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