Once the digital mammograph has been acquired the image and the PACS database has received and stored it, the image can be sent to the screening workspace, where usually, one or more experts will analyze and diagnose the case. However, in contrast with the typical film-screen image, the experts will have to watch the image on an electronic display (also called soft-copy display).
In contrast to (static) film reading, soft-copy offers new opportunities. For instance, there is experimental evidence that alternating the current and prior mammograms on the same display allows better evaluation of temporal changes than conventional display of images next to each other, in particular if images are properly registered in the spatial and gray-scale domains [184]. However, the main drawback is that a faulty or inadequately calibrated or improperly set up display can compromise the overall quality of a diagnostic procedure [132].
Clinical studies show that radiologists can perform equally well with soft-copy reading of digitized screening mammograms as with reading of conventional films, where differences in sensitivity and specificity were not significant [138,153]. Moreover, both studies show that, again, there was no significant difference in the speed of interpretation (in contrast to the already cited work of Berns et al. [10]).