LAUSR

PurposeDiagnostic breast ultrasound (US) can be an important tool for the early detection of breast cancer in low-resource settings where efficient strategies to refine the likelihood of malignancy among palpable breast masses are needed. However, the feasibility and clinical role of breast US in such settings has not been described. We trained four general practitioners and five nurses in diagnostic breast US at a rural Rwandan district hospital that serves as a cancer referral facility. We examined management plans, biopsy rates, and patient diagnoses after trainee breast US to determine the impact on clinical care.MethodsWe abstracted US assessment forms and medical records to determine outcomes from trainee US during 21 months of in-person and electronic training by Boston-based radiologists. We examined management plans, biopsy rate, cancer detection rate, rate of benign diagnoses, and cancers diagnosed among patients discharged after initial evaluation.ResultsBetween January 2016 and September 2017,...