Software catches missed cancer cases

The Volpara system reduced the number of missed cancer cases from about 20 percent to 5 percent in clinical trials of 2,500 women in the United States, the Netherlands and New Zealand, said Michael Brady, who spent 20 years developing the mammography software.

For his work, Brady, a biomedical researcher, received the Sir Frank Whittle Medal, an engineering prize given annually in Britain for an outstanding contribution to the nation, The Times of London reported Monday.

"Mammograms are notoriously difficult to interpret, even experienced radiologists evaluate scans differently, so automating the system would make the process much more reliable," Brady told the Royal Academy of Engineering in London in his acceptance speech.

Copyright 2010 by United Press International.