Review of the evidence on the use of arbitration or consensus within breast screening: A systematic scoping review

ObjectivesA systematic scoping review was undertaken to establish the evidence base on arbitration and consensus in mammography reporting.Database searches were supplemented with hand searching of peer-reviewed journals, citation tracking, key author searching, grey literature and personal contact with experts. A 3-stage process was utilised to screen a large volume of literature (601) against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. 26 papers were retained.Key findingsA lack of guidance and underpinning evidence to inform how best to use arbitration or consensus to resolve discordant reads. In particular, a lack of prospective studies to determine effectiveness in real-life clinical settings.ConclusionThe insufficiency of follow-up or reporting of true interval cancers compromised the ability to conclude the effectiveness of the processes.

Publisher Statement: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Radiography. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Radiography, [23, 2, (2017)] DOI: 10.1016/j.radi.2017.01.002

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