The American Medical Association has waded into the mammography screening controversy, arguing that all women should be "eligible" for screening at age 40, and that the screenings should be covered by insurance.
The AMA, which is thought to represent about a quarter of the nation's doctors, adopted the revised mammography policy during its annual House of Delegates meeting Tuesday in Chicago, when it tackled a variety of issues, from drug shortages to genetically modified food.
AMA's backing puts them in line with American College of Radiology and American Cancer Society guidelines, but possibly at odds with much European practice and with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
In November 2009, the USPSTF stirred up a hornet's nest by recommending that average-risk women wait until age 50 until they undergo screenings, and that they receive a scan once every other year, instead of every year, as was the earlier recommendation.
However, in its revised policy, while touting the "mortality reduction benefit" of mammo, the AMA acknowledged that the modality carried "small, but not inconsequential, harms associated with it, including false positive results and overdiagnosis," according to a preliminary account of the policy on AMA's website. The group also said that doctors should discuss the benefits and harms of the procedure with patients to determine if screening is right for them, and that physicians should keep up to date on new epidemiological findings about the practice.
"[A]ll medical care decisions should occur only after thoughtful deliberation between patients and physicians," the AMA said in the policy.
