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https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/36747
Title: | UK's breast cancer screening glitch |
Authors: | Ellul, Ian C. |
Keywords: | Editorials Breast -- Cancer -- Imaging Breast -- Cancer -- Great Britain Medicine -- Data processing |
Issue Date: | 2018 |
Publisher: | Medical Portals Ltd. |
Citation: | Ellul, I. C. (2018). UK's breast cancer screening glitch. The Synapse : the Medical Professionals' Network, 17(3), 3. |
Abstract: | Last May, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that 450,000 women between the ages of 68 and 71 in the UK failed to receive invitations for a final routine breast cancer screening. Of note, women in the UK from the age of 50 who are registered with a family doctor are automatically invited for screening with a letter every three years until their 71st birthday. Patients cannot ask for an appointment themselves until that age; after that, screening requests can be made every three years. As a result of the 450,000 failed invitations it has been estimated that up to 270 women succumbed to the disease. This gross mistake spanned over a period of almost ten years, between 2009 and 2017. The first question is posed … who is to blame? To put it mildly, a computer algorithm failure, involving the programming of people’s ages. The second question arises naturally … how was this glitch revealed? Following an upgrade to the breast screening invitation IT system, which allowed for improved data on the actual ages of the women receiving screening invitations. |
URI: | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/36747 |
Appears in Collections: | The Synapse, Volume 17, Issue 3 The Synapse, Volume 17, Issue 3 |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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The_Synapse,_17(3)_-_Edi.pdf | 537.28 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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