Germany pushes on with breast screening:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Quality assured mammography screening along European guidelines, would mean some 3,500 fewer women will die in Germany per year from breast cancer." So said the health speaker of the parliamentary Social Democratic Party (SPD) Regina Schmidt-Zadel, adding that the coalition government was keen to press ahead with proposals to introduce this procedure. The Upper House (Bundesrat) is also convinced of the necessity for breast screening.. In response to a petition by the state governments of Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein, it has agreed on a resolution to improve the quality of breast screening, with emphasis placed on mammography. The Bundesrat has called on the government to speedily submit its proposals to the federal committee for statutory health insurance physicians and sickness funds (Bundesausschuss der Arzte und Krankenkassen), the body which undertakes health technology assessment.