The different phases of screening should correspond to different communication modalities and information needs. These recommendations aim to determine the optimal strategies to inform women about screening results such as negative results and recall for further assessment.
Informing women who have a negative result
To inform women who have negative screening result, the ECIBC's Guidelines Development Group (GDG) suggests:
- using a letter
(conditional recommendation, very low certainty of the evidence) - not using a phone call
(conditional recommendation, very low quality of the evidence) - not using a face to face interview
(conditional recommendation, very low certainty of the evidence)
Women with a negative mammography screening result should be informed about their test result as soon as possible but not beyond 30 days after the mammogram (ungraded good practice statement).
Inviting women for further diagnostic assessment
The ECIBC's Guidelines Development Group (GDG) suggests using a letter plus phone call for inviting women for further diagnostic assessment within a breast cancer screening programme (conditional recommendation, low certainty of the evidence).
Women with a positive mammography screening result should be informed about their test result in a timely and sensitive manner and scheduled for further assessment as soon as possible (ungraded good practice statement).