1996.10.30 : FDA LIist All Certified Mammography Facilities on the Internet

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Date: October 30, 1996
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:  Sharon Snider, Food and Drug Administration,(301)443-3285
          Broadcast Media Contact:(301) 827-3434
          Consumer Hotline:(800) 532-4440

FDA List All Certified Mammography Facilities on the Internet

In order to help women more readily identify FDA certified mammography facilities, a list of all such facilities in the United States is now available on the internet on FDA's home page. The address is www.fda.gov/cdrh/faclist.html.

Certified facilities are listed by state. The name, address and phone number of each facility is provided. The list is updated periodically based on information received from FDA-approved accreditation bodies and from annual inspections of each facility.

The most effective technique for early detection of breast cancer is mammography, an x-ray procedure that can often locate small tumors and abnormalities up to two years before they can be detected by touch. However, mammography is one of the most technically challenging x-ray procedures, and ensuring the quality of mammography services is difficult.

Because of concerns about variations in the quality of mammography services in the approximately 10,000 facilities that provide mammograms in the U.S., Congress passed the Mammography Quality Standards Act of 1992. This act established a number of requirements aimed at strengthening quality, such as certification and annual inspection of mammography facilities.

To be certified, a mammography facility must meet quality standards for x-ray images, equipment and personnel, and must be inspected annually by an FDA-trained inspector. Nearly all of the nation's mammography facilities are currently fully certified.