Digital Pen Shortens Breast Screening Waiting List in France

Anoto Group ABAnoto Digital Pen & Paper technology has helped reduce waiting lists for breast cancer screening in France by significantly shortening the time it takes to analyse mammograms. Normal turnaround times of up to three hours were reduced to less than 30 minutes. This means that breast cancer screening centres using the digital pen will be ready for the second stage of France's national 'Plan Cancer' programme, set to start early in 2008.

As part of the 'Plan Cancer' programme, all French women between the age of 50 and 75 are offered mammography every two years. According to French law, the screening result has to be interpreted twice: once by the examining radiologist and then by a second expert. The expert reviews the examining radiologist's notes and scrutinizes the mammogram, using the digital pen and special paper. The pen remembers what is written or drawn, and this data is transmitted back to a PC or back-end server where character recognition is performed on it.

This procedure used to be performed by administrative staff without any medical training, and was prone to errors - a risk that has been virtually eliminated by the use of Digital Pen & Paper (DPP). A visual check of the digital forms is now only required in less than five per cent of cases, giving the DPP-based solution an accuracy of more than 95 per cent.

Faster processing of the results means that screening centres can meet the legal requirement of sending out results within two weeks of the examination, and schedule new appointments more quickly.

One of the health centres that has implemented DPP technology is in the French Département of Haute Garonne. Its medical co-ordinator, Dr Lepec, commented: "For us, the time reduction that the digital technology has brought us means that we can initiate the new screening programme earlier. After 15 months' experience of Anoto’s technology, the data transfer has become almost 100 per cent reliable. No working routines have been changed and the system has been functioning without interruption."

The digital pen is now used in 12 of France's 90 Départements. This year alone, around 200,000 mammograms have been performed with the help of Anoto's DPP technology in France. On average, each Département runs 30,000 breast cancer scans every year. The long-term objective is to equip the 45 Départements who perform the most scans with DPP technology.

Related news article:
Healthcare Digital Pen and Paper Technology

About Digital Pen & Paper technology
The Digital Pen & Paper (DPP) solution has been developed by Forms Management Systems (FMS), based on Anoto's technology. It is integrated with the NeoScope information transfer software from EpiConcept. The digital pen looks and feels like a normal ballpoint pen. It contains an integrated digital camera and uses a USB or Bluetooth connection for fixed or wireless transfer. The digital camera enables users to capture, store and securely transfer data, using special dotted paper. Almost invisible to the naked eye, the Anoto pattern on the paper consists of numerous intelligent black dots that can be read by the digital pen. The pattern indicates the digital pen’s exact position. Moreover, the pattern on each paper sheet is unique, enabling the sheets to be separated from one another.

About Anoto Group AB
Anoto Group is the company behind and world leading in the unique technology for digital pen and paper, which enables fast and reliable transmission of handwritten text into a digital format. Anoto operates through a global partner network that focuses on user-friendly forms solutions for efficient capture, transmission and storage of data within different business segments, e.g. healthcare, bank and finance, transport and logistics and education. The Anoto Group has around 100 employees, offices in Lund (head office), Boston and Tokyo. Among the major shareholders are Norden Technology A/S, Robur and SEB. The Anoto share is traded on the Mid Cap list of the OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm under the ticker ANOT. For more information: www.anoto.com

Most Popular Now

Giving Doctors an AI-Powered Head Start …

Detection of melanoma and a range of other skin diseases will be faster and more accurate with a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool that analyses multiple imaging types simultaneously...

AI Medical Receptionist Modernizing Doct…

A virtual medical receptionist named "Cassie," developed through research at Texas A&M University, is transforming the way patients interact with health care providers. Cassie is a digital-human assistant created by Humanate...

Using Data and AI to Create Better Healt…

Academic medical centers could transform patient care by adopting principles from learning health systems principles, according to researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of California, San Diego. In...

Northern Ireland Completes Nationwide Ro…

Go-lives at Western and Southern health and social care trusts mean every pathology service is using the same laboratory information management system; improving efficiency and quality. An ambitious technology project to...

AI Detects Hidden Heart Disease Using Ex…

Mass General Brigham researchers have developed a new AI tool in collaboration with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to probe through previously collected CT scans and identify...

AI Tool Set to Transform Characterisatio…

A multinational team of researchers, co-led by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has developed and tested a new AI tool to better characterise the diversity of individual cells within...

Human-AI Collectives Make the Most Accur…

Diagnostic errors are among the most serious problems in everyday medical practice. AI systems - especially large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT-4, Gemini, or Claude 3 - offer new ways...

MHP-Net: A Revolutionary AI Model for Ac…

Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer globally and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Accurate segmentation of liver tumors is a crucial step for the management of the...

Highland Marketing Announced as Official…

Highland Marketing has been named, for the second year running, the official communications partner for HETT Show 2025, the UK's leading digital health conference and exhibition. Taking place 7-8 October...

Groundbreaking TACIT Algorithm Offers Ne…

Researchers at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a novel algorithm that could provide a revolutionary tool for determining the best options for patients - both in the treatment...

The Many Ways that AI Enters Rheumatolog…

High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is the standard to diagnose and assess progression in interstitial lung disease (ILD), a key feature in systemic sclerosis (SSc). But AI-assisted interpretation has the potential...