Digital imaging technology is expected to get a boost from a recent study that found digital mammography was helpful in diagnosing cancer in some women.

Providers and vendors, while encouraged by the news, noted the study's results involved only a small subset of women who were likely to be screened for breast cancer.

Still, it will cause insurers to look more favorably on digital imaging for some of their covered lives, they say, and it will provide another nudge for healthcare organizations to upgrade their imaging technology.

"For the average hospital and the average radiologist, when it comes time to replace a mammography unit, they're going to lean toward digital," said Mark Helvie, MD, director of the breast imaging division of the University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor.

The study, released by the American College of Radiology last month, suggests that digital mammography is more accurate in assessing risks of women younger than 50, with radiographically dense breasts or who are premenopausal or perimenopausal.

The results indicated that film-based mammography and digital mammography provide overall similar diagnostic accuracy. Previous studies had not found significant differences between the two.

For many women, there won't be an advantage for digital mammography over film-based studies, Helvie said. But the study will be able to help healthcare organizations direct patients to the most effective tool.

Proponents of digital imaging found the results encouraging. Digital mammography helps radiologists by enabling them to use image processing that allows the degree of contrast to be manipulated. As a result, they're able to increase contrast in dense areas of the breast that otherwise would exhibit low contrast.

The Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial is one of the largest tests of digital mammography to date. It spanned four years and involved more than 49,500 women in 35 centers in the United States and Canada.

The study's findings could increase the use of digital mammography among groups of women who could directly benefit from it, said Vincent Polkus, mammography advanced applications product manager for GE Healthcare.

"The use of digital mammography will directly translate into a reduction from breast cancer," he predicted, estimating that digital mammography's advantages apply to population groups that comprise as many as 40 percent of the women in this country.

Polkus predicted there will be increasing demand for digital mammography, and healthcare organizations will need to be convinced that larger upfront expenses for those devices will be offset by other savings – on film, processing and storage – over the length of the investment.

"The installed base for digital mammography equipment is less than 10 percent, but that will change based on the results of this study," Helvie predicted.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association said the study indicates that digital mammography "is a win-win technology that significantly improves cancer detection in key groups of women and makes big improvements in productivity because digital images are easier to access, adjust, store and retrieve," said Bob Britain, vice president of medical products for the association.

"Digital mammography can also help move the U.S. healthcare system into the age of IT, the electronic health record, and the efficiencies that information technologies offer," Britain said.Helvie also predicted that digital mammography can provide more benefits as the technology matures.