Yellowknife (May 16/05) - In a nation where many mammography units fail accreditation, Stanton Territorial Hospital radiologist Dr. Anthony Bonifacio is applauding the recent pass of its machine.

"It's variable. Usually it takes longer," Bonifacio said of the swift two and one-half months it took to gain a three-year accreditation for the Yellowknife unit in April.

There are many factors why a delay or a quick accreditation process may occur, Bonifacio, also screening director of the Breast Screening program in Yellowknife, said.

"Not always all the steps are in place.

"Sometimes it takes a year or more to get an accreditation."

"The training for the staff is a good start," he said of an expedited pathway to accreditation.

"If they are well-trained with quality control on the equipment and they keep up with basic skills, the results are always good," Bonifacio said.

Installed in 1999, the new mammography unit at Stanton is operated by one full-time and one half-time technologist.

Accreditation of a mammography unit is conducted by the Canadian Association of Radiologists through its mammography accreditation program.

Normand Laberge, CEO of the association, located in St.-Laurent, Quebec, said the Yellowknife mammography unit accreditation time was something not seen every day.

"It was a special situation. It was a pass at first try," Laberge said of a process which often results in first-time failure.

Normally, the accreditation process takes from between three and six months with a first-try failure rate of 20 per cent, he said.

"It is indeed the right mixture of human skills, a good machine well-maintained and most importantly, the commitment to quality."

Laberge said because of the relative isolation of Yellowknife as compared to urban centres such as Toronto, the difficulty of finding staff is an obstacle.

"But once you get them, they seem to be committed to quality, which has generated an environment which favours high quality care and this was proven in a rapid way."

The accreditation program is voluntary in Canada and began in 1992. Only the provinces or the territories have the jurisdiction to make the program mandatory.

Laberge said about 85 per cent of all units in Canada are accredited.

There is one other stationary mammography unit in the NWT - that being in Inuvik.

It, however, is not accredited, said Bonifacio.

"There are two big problems. One is that there is not a technologist trained for mammography.

"The second is that the processor for developing film for mammograms is not dedicated for mammography only," Bonifacio said of its lack of accreditation.

As well as the diagnostic mammograms being conducted at Stanton, Yellowknife currently has the breast screening program, a pilot project which has been ongoing since January, 2004.

1,000 screenings

Last year, more than 1,000 screenings were conducted in Yellowknife.

Campbell said currently, the pilot project is booking appointments for about three weeks ahead. The diagnostic mammograms are being booked about six weeks ahead, she added.

About 49 per cent of the target population in the Dettah, Ndilo and Yellowknife areas have had mammography performed through the project.

"That's above average nationally," she said of such an organized screening project.

Bonifacio said four cancers were detected last year alone through the screening process.