National Population Based Breast Cancer Screening Program-Dora has Been Launched

Barbara Jezeršek Novaković and Ana Benigar National population based breast cancer screening program – Dora has been launched. At the end of March 2008, first women from the Ljubljana municipality received an invitation letter sent by Dora invitation office to attend screening mammography. First screening mammographies will be taken at the screening unit at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana. The program will slowly be expanding and, by establishing new screening units, it will cover the target population of the whole Slovenia. High-quality of the organization of screening program is of essential importance in early detection of breast cancer and reduction of mortality due to this disease. The key elements of a high-quality screening program include the appropriate education and professional qualification of the personnel, primarily radiologists and radiological engineers, and also of other personnel participating in further diagnostics and treatment, double reading of mammograms, interdisciplinary cooperation, appropriate technical quality of mammography machines, appropriate information system, and monitoring and evaluation of program quality indicators. Furthermore, the selection of the target population of women for screening mammography has to be made in an organized and systematic way. An appropriate response in this population must be achieved through the use of personal invitations and health education campaigns. The Program Dora meets all the requirements of the European guidelines concerning quality control and treatment.