Screening mammograms are not just an opportunity to detect early-stage breast cancer—they’re a pivotal moment to identify patients at high risk for future breast cancer development. Yet, many breast care programs may be overlooking patients who could benefit from genetic counseling, enhanced surveillance or preventive interventions.
Why Identifying High-Risk Patients Is Critical
Patients with an elevated risk of breast cancer, such as those with dense breast tissue, a significant family history, or genetic predispositions like BRCA mutations, require a tailored approach. By identifying these patients during routine screening, you can:
Prevent late-stage diagnoses through early and enhanced surveillance.
Enable preventive care like chemoprevention or risk-reducing surgery.
Build trust and loyalty by demonstrating a proactive commitment to personalized care.
Steps to Ensure You're Capturing High-Risk Patients
Integrate Risk Assessment Tools: Incorporate evidence-based tools like the Gail Model, Tyrer-Cuzick, or CanRisk into your mammography workflow. These tools calculate lifetime breast cancer risk based on personal and family history.
Automate Risk Flagging in Your EMR: Utilize your electronic medical records (EMR) system to flag patients with elevated risk factors, ensuring they don’t get lost in the routine care process.
Provide Staff Training on Risk Awareness: Educate your mammography technologists and schedulers on identifying red flags, like a history of atypical hyperplasia or previous chest radiation.
Develop Referral Pathways for High-Risk Clinics: Create seamless systems to ensure high-risk patients are referred to appropriate services, such as genetic counseling or specialized surveillance programs.
Measuring Success: Are You Closing the Gap?
To ensure your efforts are effective, track key metrics such as:
The percentage of high-risk patients identified during screening.
Genetic counseling follow-through rates.
Long-term compliance with surveillance or risk-reducing strategies.
How Breast Care Architects Can Help
At Breast Care Architects, we specialize in designing workflows that integrate high-risk patient identification into your routine operations and help you pick the most cost-effective tools that work for your system. From implementing risk models to optimizing referral pathways, we provide customized solutions to elevate your program.
Let’s Work Together
Contact us to ensure your breast care program captures every high-risk patient—because every patient deserves the best chance at prevention and early detection.
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