Anne Arundel Diagnostics Awarded Maryland ’s First Breast Imaging Center Of Excellence By American College Of Radiology

Annapolis, Md.  (June 27, 2008) – Anne Arundel Diagnostics (AAD), the outpatient imaging service of Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC), has been awarded Maryland’s first “Breast Imaging Center of Excellence Accreditation” by the American College of Radiology (ACR), becoming the only such center in Maryland to have this prestigious designation.  The award is an affirmation of the high breast imaging standards and practices the center has delivered since its inception in 1996. 

“AAD has a tradition of radiologic imaging excellence,” said Carolyn Core, a senior vice president for AAMC.  “AAD was the first diagnostic center in the region to adopt digital mammography, and the AAMC Breast Center was the first facility in Maryland to earn voluntary stereotactic accreditation in 1996.  Quality, technology, and safety is truly the heritage of AAD.”

According to the ACR, fewer than 200 of the 8,800 certified breast imaging centers in the United States are currently designated as ACR Breast Imaging Centers of Excellence.  Yet, according to the American Cancer Society's 2008 Cancer Journal for Clinicians, more than 182,000 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year alone, approximately 4,000 of them in Maryland. 
Effective breast imaging can provide earlier diagnosis of breast cancer, translating to finding cancers earlier and more effective treatment for a cure.

“As the only diagnostic provider in Maryland to have achieved this accreditation, it means a great deal to our organization and should mean a tremendous amount more to our community and the patients we serve,” said Mark Radowich, M.D., medical director of AAD and one of the five certified breast radiologist at AAMC.  “Patients have access to the best possible diagnostic and breast imaging care at AAD’s locations.  Our team of breast radiologists are sub specialized in breast imaging studies, which translates into a level of care people living in this region should demand.”  All of the technologists at AAD who perform mammography are also specialty-certified in mammography.

In naming AAD as an ACR Breast Imaging Center of Excellence, the ACR conducted peer-review evaluations by both board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field of radiology.  They determined that AAD achieved high practice standards in image quality, personnel qualifications, facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs.  The award also confirms a center’s accreditation in all of the College’s voluntary, breast-imaging accreditation programs of digital mammography, breast ultrasound, and stereotactic and ultrasound guided breast biopsy, in addition to the mandatory Mammography Accreditation Program.

AAD has six locations in Maryland, including on the Eastern Shore at AAMC’s new ambulatory outpatient facility, AAMC Health Services – Kent Island in Stevensville, Md.  AAD’s other locations are:

• The AAMC Sajak Pavilion at 2002 Medical Parkway in Annapolis, Md.
• The AAMC Breast Center (AAD Imaging) at 2002 Medical Parkway in Annapolis, Md.
• Shipley’s Imaging Center at 8601 Veterans Highway in Millersville, Md.
• Weems Creek Medical Center at 600 Ridgely Avenue in Annapolis, Md.
• AAMC Health Services – Bowie at 4175 North Hanson Court in Bowie, Md.

For more information on AAD and on the team of certified breast radiologists that read more than 28,000 breast imaging studies a year, visit www.aahs.org or www.annearundeldiagnostics.org.

Anne Arundel Health System began in 1902 as a not-for-profit community hospital to serve the Maryland capital city of Annapolis.  Currently licensed for more than 300 beds, AAMC has evolved into a regional health care system serving nearly one million people in Maryland and is currently undergoing expansion projects that will double the size of the AAMC campus by the year 2010.