Fig. 1

Decision tree model to assess the costs and effects of screening mammography interpretation by the radiographers in this study in terms of true positives, false negatives and false positives. The model compares three hypothetical scenarios: (A) the status quo in which one radiologist reads all mammograms; (B) a radiographer reads all mammograms; and (C) a radiographer reads all mammograms first, sends obvious abnormal findings for diagnostic evaluation and leaves to the radiologist, for a second reading, only those images which he/she considers difficult to interpret. Both scenarios (B and C) were compared with the status quo, where a radiologist reads all mammograms (A)