Press Office
Food and Drug Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS                          Sharon Snider
October 30, 1996                                (301) 443-3285
                      
                      Consumer Hotline:         (800) 532-4440    

 FDA LISTS ALL CERTIFIED MAMMOGRAPHY FACILITIES ON THE INTERNET
     In order to help women more readily identify FDA certified
mammography facilities, a list of all such facilities in the United
States is now available on the internet on FDA's home page.
The address is http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/faclist.html.
     Certified facilities are listed by state.  The name, address
and phone number of each facility is provided.  The list is updated
periodically based on information received from FDA-approved
accreditation bodies and from annual inspections of each facility.
     The most effective technique for early detection of breast
cancer is mammography, an x-ray procedure that can often locate
small tumors and abnormalities up to two years before they can be
detected by touch.  However, mammography is one of the most
technically challenging x-ray procedures, and ensuring the quality
of mammography services is difficult.
     Because of concerns about variations in the quality of
mammography services in the approximately 10,000 facilities that
provide mammograms in the U.S., Congress passed the Mammography 
Quality Standards Act of 1992.  This act established a number of
requirements aimed at strengthening quality, such as certification 
and annual inspection of mammography facilities.
     To be certified, a mammography facility must meet quality
standards for x-ray images, equipment and personnel, and must be
inspected annually by an FDA-trained inspector.   Nearly all of the
nation's mammography facilities are currently fully certified.   
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