The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an alternative standard to the Medical Outcomes Audit requirement, part of the Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA).
According to the American College of Radiology (ACR) of Reston, VA, the new alternative standard allows multiple mammography facilities to combine their medical outcomes audits if they meet certain criteria.
The approved alternative states:
- Each facility shall establish and maintain a mammography medical outcomes audit program to follow up positive mammographic assessments and to correlate pathology results with the interpreting physician's findings. This program shall be designed to ensure the reliability, clarity, and accuracy of the interpretation of mammograms [21 CFR 900.12(f)].
- Each facility shall establish a system to collect and review outcome data for all mammograms performed, including follow-up on the disposition of all positive mammograms and correlation of pathology results with the interpreting physician's mammography report [21 CFR 900.12(f)(1)].
The details are posted on the FDA's Web site.
Related Reading
Number of U.S. mammo facilities drops, September 2, 2009
ACR reports statistics on mammo complaints, May 18, 2009
ACR introduces National Mammography Database, May 7, 2009
ACR, ARRS wrap up integration deal, May 5, 2009
ACR weighs in on industry relationships, April 30, 2009
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![A normal mammogram confirmed by three-year radiologic follow-up illustrates reader-marked regions of interest (ROIs) during (A) unaided (round 1) and (B) artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted (round 2) reading. Each colored dot represents an ROI for recall by a human reader. Readers could mark more than one ROI per case, represented by multiple dots of the same color. During AI-assisted reading, the AI system displayed three visible prompts: two with suspicion of malignancy scores of 35% (left mediolateral oblique [L MLO] and craniocaudal [L CC]) and one with a suspicion of malignancy score of 10% (right craniocaudal [R CC]), shown as polygonal overlays. Without AI, six of 10 readers (60%) marked a false-positive ROI. With AI assistance, this fell to two of 10 (20%). R MLO = right mediolateral oblique.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/07/2026-07-14-radiology-mammogram-ai-auto-bias.H0bYO8QlWs.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=112&q=70&w=112)






