Germany is made up of 16 federal states with relevant legislation being the responsibility of the individual states, including health care. Nevertheless, a centralized, national breast screening programme was implemented in 2005-2009 according to the European Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnosis [1]. The programme covers mammography screening and full diagnostic assessment up to and including histological diagnosis. 95 screening units (SU), each with one or more mammography units and one or more assessment units provide service to an eligible population...

The EUREF Certification Protocols published in chapter 11 of the European Guidelines [1], and more recently updated, incorporate epidemiological, radiological, radiographical, pathological, and physico-technical performance evaluation. The certification level suitable for the German RCs was that of European Reference Centre for Breast Screening. Multidisciplinary visits by EUREF personnel to each RC commenced in 2007 with advisory visits, followed by pre-certification visits in 2010. The process included assessment of quality of screening and RC personnel, adequacy of facilities, resources, and data collection as well as review...

European Reference Centre level EUREF certification was successfully achieved for each of the five German RCs regarding their professional, technical, training, leadership and organisational performance. Recommendations from the earlier visits had been implemented and resulted in recognizable improvements of service quality. A uniform assessment protocol based on best practice had been implemented by the directors of the RCs. To enforce adherence, regular review of assessment cases of screening units by the RCs had been integrated into the screening directives. Data collection and monitoring is performed...

The task of EUREF has been to further develop the German breast cancer screening programme by advising and preparing the RCs for certification, as they take the lead and responsibility for all aspects of monitoring of performance, data collection, training and research. The evidence accumulated over many visits both from EUREF’s own experiences of case review and the documented results is that the RCs are operating at a high-quality level both professionally and technically and should be regarded as fully capable of fulfilling their allotted...

Contact information: Dr. Vanessa Kääb-Sanyal Programme Manager Kooperationsgemeinschaft Mammographie Goethestraße 85 10623 Berlin Germany Phone +49 30 3199851 10 Fax +49 30 3199851 88 Mail [email protected]

Perry N, Broeders M, de Wolf C, Törnberg S, et al. European Guidelines for QualityAssurance in Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnosis. Fourth Edition. EuropeanCommission, Luxembourg, (2006). Jahresbericht Evaluation 2014. Deutsches Mammographie-Screening-Programm. Kooperationsgemeinschaft Mammographie, Berlin, Dezember 2016. Bericht zum Krebsgeschehen in Deutschland 2016. Zentrum für Krebsregisterdaten im Robert Koch-Institut (ed.). Berlin, 2016. van Engen RE, Bosmans H, Dance DR, Heid P, Lazzari B, Marshall N, Schopphoven S, Thijssen M, Young KC (2013). Digital mammography update. European protocol for the quality control of the physical and technical...