BIEP 2010 Report
The Breast Imaging Education Program 2010 was organized as a three day program with one day workshop on 27th August and 2 days conference on 28th and 29th August, 2010.

Day 1:
The workshop was attended by 68 delegates from across the country. The participants were divided into 3 groups and rotated among all three procedures.

Delegates attended the workshop with Ms.Henny Rijkens for working on Digital mammography workstations in small groups.

In turns they also attended the video demonstration of mammographic positioning techniques, both routine and additional mammographic views and the workshop on ultrasound guided interventional procedures. Then the group was divided into 5 subgroups to attend hands-on practice with ultrasound guided FNAC, cyst aspiration, trucut biopsy, wire localization and vacuum-assisted biopsy.

Day 2:
The conference was attended by 150 delegates, which included radiologists, surgeons.

The conference began with the welcome address by Dr.Selvi Radhakrishna, followed by her talk on ‘What a surgeon expects from a radiologist?’ This was followed by talk on how mammography showed gradual transition from conventional methods to the recent advance of Digital tomosynthesis. The day’s session included topics on normal mammographic anatomy, optimal positioning techniques, optimal viewing conditions, reporting standards, medical quality assurance, mass and non- mass lesions, calcifications, architectural distortion and treated breast. There was also a talk on ‘how to set up a breast unit’, giving instructions and suggestions for aspiring radiologists about the necessity for a setting up breast units. The last session was an interactive quiz with case discussion. It was arranged with voting pads and was appreciated by the participants.

Day 3:
The day’s session was focused on breast ultrasound and MRI of the breast with few talks on advances in breast imaging techniques like ROLL, PET-CT and Electrical impedance tomography. The morning session on breast ultrasound by Dr.Sasi Govindarajulu from Bristol, UK had one of the highest number of excellent feedbacks from the participants. She spoke on normal ultrasound anatomy of breast, benign and malignant lesions of breast and reporting standards. She also gave talk on performing ultrasound guided interventional techniques. The MRI topics included clinical applications, reporting standards and recent advances of MRI in breast.

Ms. Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Member of Parliament inaugurated Chennai Breast Centre, an exclusive and comprehensive breast care centre, on September 1, 2009. This breast centre is established was a direct response to the growing needs for greater awareness about the importance of breast health amongst women of all ages.

Read review by Aunt Minnie
The Chennai Breast Care Center in Chennai (formerly Madras), the capital city in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu, is the first health center in India to focus exclusively on women's breast health and the first to implement a comprehensive digital solution to improve the outcome of breast cancer�..

This workshop was well attended and received by surgeons and radiologists. Dr. Sasirekha Govindarajulu from Frenchay Breast Centre, Bristol, UK, contributed a lot to the workshop with her experience in performing, interpreting, and reporting ultrasound procedures, and demonstrated how to perform ultrasound-guided biopsies. She was present helping trainees to practice with phantoms to do breast biopsies.

Dr. Selvi Radhakrishna has authored a book called Breast cancer – A handbook in Tamil, released in August 2010, by Penn Nalam. This book addresses all aspects of diagnosis, treatment and care during and after treatment process in a very simple language.

Our Mainstay
Chennai Breast Centre in collaboration with researchers from Institute of Basic Sciences conducts spearheaded research on breast cancer pathogenesis and metastasis. The current project on metastatic potential of breast cancer by analysis of Matrix mettalloproteases is of prime focus at it will add new dimensions to treatment & regulation in breast cancer. Apart from this study, Chennai Breast Centre has teams of researchers working on other areas of importance in breast cancer research.

Conferences and Courses attended
Dr. Selvi Radhakrishna attended the :
1. Asian breast diseases association’s annual conference in Mumbai in October 2010.
2. Breast pathology course conducted by the Singapore general hospital in November 2010.
3. Participated as faculty for the WCI meeting conducted at Tata Memorial Hospital.
4. SAN ANTONIO BREAST CANCER SYMPOSIUM Participated as faculty at the annual association
    of surgeons of India , Dec 2011

Going digital has ensured that we have archived images in an electronic database readily available to teach and train..
Chennai breast centre conducts the following courses
1. Intensive breast imaging training course. Topics covered Common clinical disorders, Mammography,      breast ultrasound and interventional technique
     A step by step approach to read a mammogram with training sets complete with correlating ultrasound
     images wherever applicable and pathology information makes the
     course very practical and hands on.
2. Mammographer training course
    Trained mammographers are crucial to a success in breast imaging centers. We conduct a certificate
    course in breast imaging for mammographers. Emphasis is placed on optimal positioning, regular and
    special views . The various artifacts that decrease the quality of breast imaging is also taught during this
    program 
3. Interventional techniques
4. Comprehensive training in breast imaging
5. Comprehensive training in breast surgery.
6. Short Term Courses Click Here for download

The centre has an excellent library with books and CD collection of various breast imaging, breast surgery and oncology books. The centre also has an electronic subscription to a variety of journals .


Next course dates – Please call the centre for further details.