A resident at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital has been recognized with a national award for research on the electronic transmission of mammograms to improve breast cancer detection. Mark Kovacs, MD, a fourth-year radiology resident and principal investigator for the study, received the 2014 Residents in Radiology Executive Council Award from the American Roentgen Ray Society, the oldest radiology society in the United States.

A study of 194 patients found that mammographers were able to detect tumors as small as 1 cm in size after the images had been shrunken to one eightieth of their original file size through a technique called lossy data compression. By removing data from files, the technique could allow diagnostic images to be instantly sent anywhere in the world for virtual consultation.

“Studies show that the No. 1 factor in increasing breast cancer detection rates is the experience of the physician reading the mammogram,” said Kovacs, who worked as a software engineer before transitioning to medicine. “One of the limiting factors in getting screening mammograms to expert readers is the enormous file size of full-field digital mammograms. If the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) allowed the use of lossy compressed mammograms for primary interpretation, it could usher in a new era of practical telemammography that could help improve early detection rates for breast cancer.”

Michael Trambert, MD, director of radiology research at the hospital, added that the award bestows a major honor on the institution. “Fellows and residents at the largest academic medical centers across the US submit their research competing for this award every year. For a resident at Cottage Hospital to be named among the best in the country is just another example of the cutting-edge work we do here.”

For more information, visit Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.