MammaCare Technology Sets Standards for Clinical Breast Exams

MammaCare NSF Webcast,  Early Breast Cancer Detection Saves Lives

View a webcast with Mark Kane Goldstein, Ph.D, a founder and Director of the MammaCare Foundation

Thanks to MammaCare science and the National Science Foundation a revolutionary technology now provides standards of training for performing clinical breast exams. The computer guided system  trains medical and nursing students to accurately detect small  suspicious breast breast lesions.

The National Science Foundation funded an extensive series of tests designed  to measure and advance the performance of breast exams to document and standardize the most  effective and thorough examination procedure. The intelligent simulator employs a standard series of tactually accurate breast models with small, hidden simulated breast cancers that require training to detect and to discriminate from normal lumpy breast tissues.

"You can't palpate a pamphlet" said Mark Goldstein, a founder of MammaCare ,  "but you can train fingers to reliably detect small lesions. "

"This  technology replaces antiquated practices and that the NSF award could give a boost and modernize a product for education related to cancer detection, said Glenn Larsen, program director in the Engineering Directorate at NSF. "The panel and I saw this product as being of value throughout the world and of value in areas that might not have strong medical facilities or knowledge. It looked doubtful that the company could pull this off on their own resources and that NSF funding could contribute substantially to something with very broad impact not only here in the US but around the world."

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Deborah Wing, NSF, (703) 292-5344, dwing@nsf.gov

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. 

Revolutionary Technology Improves Accuracy of Clinical Breast Examinations

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Revolutionary Technology Improves Accuracy of Clinical Breast Examinations
MammaCare® Breast Exam Simulator Produces Smart Fingers™

GAINESVILLE, Fla.,  (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – MammaCare, recognized for advancing breast examination standards announced a revolutionary, computer-guided clinical breast examination (CBE) technology that improves and objectively confirms practitioners' ability to reliably detect small breast tumors while reducing false positives. MammaCare scientists developed a series of tactually accurate breast models containing small, simulated breast cancers from 3mm, the size of a small pea to 7 mm  the standard range for measuring breast examination proficiency.

"The challenge was to find a way to link the models to an intelligent device that could accurately translate the examiner's subjective, tactual sensations into digital code."  Mark Kane Goldstein, Ph.D, a team scientist exaplained.  The National Science Foundation (NSF) supported this effort leading to an engineering breakthrough that digitally replicates and displays the sensations fingers experience while palpating breast tissue and detecting tumors. A novel laptop controlled interface guides trainees palpating fingers through exercises on a series of breast models until they are able to find the tiny simulated tumors without falsely "detecting" non-existent ones. They must successfully perform the requirements of each learning task before the simulator's program will present the succeeding ones.

Initial trials of the simulator at Mayo Clinic found significant gains in sensitivity (finding tumors that are present) and specificity (not finding tumors that are absent). The MammaCare and Mayo Clinic teams presented the first research report at an international breast cancer congress in July. At the request of the VA's Women Veterans Health Care Program MammaCare dedicated the first three months production of the simulator to optimize breast examination practices for VA medical and nursing staff who provide healthcare for nearly two million women veterans.

Dr. HS Pennypacker, a pioneer in developing instructional technologies, designed the training software that incrementally shapes each component of breast examination and detection skill required to meet proficiency standards. A co-founder of MammaCare, Pennypacker said, "If we can teach fingers to read Braille dots, we can surely teach fingers to find suspicious lesions in breast tissue."

After observing the Simulator improve breast examination performance at the Women Veterans Health Program Medical Centers, Dr. Mary Mehn, MammaCare's Director of Education named it; "Smart Fingers". She noted, "Breast cancer screening depends on the quality of manual examinations and mammograms. Both must be performed skillfully. We finally have the method to reach and teach every hand that examines women."

The MammaCare breast exam training technology was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.