At Winthrop, the breast imaging and diagnostic suite is a separate facility 2 blocks south of the main hospital campus that provides rigorous attention to excellence and academics only a teaching hospital can offer in a beautiful outpatient setting.

The center provides a multidisciplinary approach to breast health care. Fellowship-trained mammographers, clinical nurse specialists and highly trained and accredited technologists staff this facility. The doctors work closely with pathology, surgery, radiation oncology, oncology, ob-gyn, and internal medicine.

The facility is designed to meet patient needs on a same day visit principle. In other words, the resident has the opportunity to read the initial mammogram, perform ultrasound, biopsy, and review pathology all on the same day as patients needs and mammographic findings are addressed all in one visit. This provides an unparalleled approach to learning how breast cancer is handled from start to finish. Residents are strongly encouraged to manage cases under the direct supervision of the attending radiologist.

All interventional procedures are performed including ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration, ultrasound guided mammotome core biopsy, stereotactic mammotome core biopsy, galactography, pneumocystography, and needle localization. All procedures are performed on new state of the art equipment. MRI of the breast is being added to our armamentarium. The resident is encouraged to watch and then perform as many interventional procedures as he/she is comfortable doing.

Over 6,000 mammograms are performed yearly with a strong consultation service in place providing interesting and daily pathology. Over 1,000 breast ultrasounds are conducted and over 600 biopsies are performed yearly. Our facility has accumulated an extensive teaching file available that is easily accessible to the resident. Our primary goal is to ensure that the resident is well versed and comfortable reading mammograms and learning the essential tools for patient care and technical intervention.

Residents are encouraged to attend weekly tumor board conference to review interesting breast cases with all the other disciplines that attend the meeting. Residents are asked to contribute to the teaching file with 4 cases per month. Unlike other residency programs, at Winthrop residents can rotate thru at the end of the second year or the beginning of the third year so that he/she can be exposed to the field prior to choosing a specialty. Research in breast disease and breast health is available and encouraged.