Monthly Progress Notes

Our founder and president, Richard Lippert, has joined the Association of Healthcare Internal Auditors (AHIA), an international organization dedicated to advancing healthcare internal auditing, from operational and compliance to clinical, financial, and IT. In 2027, we plan to pursue AHIA's Certified Healthcare Internal Audit Professional (CHIAP) credential, which AHIA describes as the only certification unique to healthcare internal auditing.[1] Certification will depend on eligibility and passing AHIA's exam.

Why does this matter to you? An audit is only as credible as its independence. Mammologix reviews your data from outside your clinical and operational chain, and you will see that review and oversight become more formal in the months ahead, aligned with recognized internal audit guidance. It does not replace your radiologists or quality committees. It gives them an objective outside view, which can strengthen confidence in your results with administrators, accreditors, and inspectors.

On October 2, our team attended PCC Day 2026 in Orlando and heard from U.S. Postmaster General and CEO David Steiner, the 76th person to hold the office. In his August 2026 remarks to the USPS Board of Governors, he called end-to-end visibility "the linchpin for improving customer service."[2] Sensitive patient communications need the same: visibility, speed, and accountability.

That is the idea behind Soligraph, the new I/O Trak, Inc. service line for producing, proofing, tracking, and documenting sensitive, personalized communications across print and digital delivery. We are completing the transition of all clients to this system and beginning to see tremendous service-level benefits.

Why does this matter? A printed letter delivered by mail can reduce the amount of sensitive result information that travels via electronic messaging. Hacking and other IT incidents are the leading cause of large, reported healthcare data breaches, accounting for more than 80% of them in 2025, according to one tally from the federal breach portal.[3] Although no method is risk-free, since a letter can be misaddressed or maliciously mishandled, an unprecedented level of sophistication for proofing, tracking, and documentation matters. This helps ensure the right letter to the right patient at the right time, with a complete record of what happened.

We are pleased to introduce Pauline, Mammologix's new evidence-driven clinical knowledge platform for breast imaging professionals, now on mammologix.com. Ask a question in plain language, and Pauline searches Mammologix content and a curated set of trusted external sources, including PubMed-indexed literature, FDA and National Cancer Institute resources, and professional society guidance. She returns a concise answer with references so you can review the sources yourself.

Pauline is a knowledge and research support tool. She does not provide a diagnosis, replace a qualified healthcare professional, establish a standard of care, or supersede current laws, regulations, accreditation requirements, or facility policies. Please review the cited sources and apply your own professional judgment. We will keep working to grow her capabilities in the months ahead.

Interest in breast arterial calcification (BAC) grew noticeably this October. BAC is calcium in the walls of the small arteries of the breast. Commonly, it is not breast cancer, and published research has associated it with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke.

Maryland has become the first state to enact a requirement, effective October 1, 2026, that screening result letters include a prescribed notice.[4] BAC reporting is not currently required under the Mammography Quality Standards Act. However, if your facility reports BAC, or is considering it, we are glad to work with you on how it is documented and whether you would like to communicate those findings in your patient lay result letters. We are happy to join the conversation with your imaging, risk management, or cardiovascular teams.

As part of our ongoing quality improvement, Mammologix is pleased to report that it has secured a long-term agreement with one of the nation's premier paper suppliers for an enhanced tinted security window envelope. As a benefit to our economy of scale, Mammologix can provide this benefit at no additional fee to clients who receive our full-service letter services. Nothing is needed from you.

This month we released a special Progress Note on changes to FDA certificate delivery that will directly affect your facility. If you have not had a chance to read it, we encourage you to do so: mammologix.com/progress-notes

Beginning October 1, 2026, mammogram result letters in Maryland must include a prescribed notice when breast arterial calcification is seen, stating that it can signal a higher risk of heart disease. If Mammologix produces result letters for your Maryland practice, this wording will be included exactly as the law prescribes. Nothing is needed from you at this time. Samples of these letters will be available on your Logix Drive in the Letter Folder.

As fall arrives, we're aiming to wrap all three up by the end of October.

• Pathology cross-walking, now to also include World Health Organization terminology. As previewed in July, we are cross-walking breast pathology findings to the American Joint Committee on Cancer, AJCC, TNM staging framework whenever the findings allow, even when a report is not written in an AJCC format. As we got further into the project, we were able to take an additional step and enhance it further by also referencing the World Health Organization's Classification of Tumours breast lexicon.[1] Your traditional descriptive pathology coding is not changing.
• Soligraph. We are more than halfway through transitioning our clients to Soligraph, the new and exciting I/O Trak, Inc. service line for producing, proofing, tracking, and documenting sensitive, personalized communications across print and digital delivery. Soligraph has already helped us dispatch result letters the same day Mammologix receives the triggering event, for nearly 30% of eligible events among transitioned clients.
• Knowledge Hub. Our KnowledgeHub articles are continuing to be relocated to mammologix.com/resources, each reviewed and updated on the way.

Mammologix is taking an innovative step: engineering a tokenized foundation into our audit and analytics tools. In the analytics layer, each patient is now represented by a LogixToken, a random, client-specific stand-in, rather than by identity. Patient identity itself stays in a separate, audited key service, keeping the analytics work de-identified.

This lets us apply enhanced, tightly controlled methods, including AI-assisted analysis, to find patterns, stratify outcomes, and deepen disposition, follow-up, and key-performance-indicator reporting across your enterprise, quickly, consistently, and to a level not previously practical at this scale. None of this is being rushed. It has been tested extensively, using hundreds of millions of data analyses under direct Mammologix staff review, and we are now ready to make it available to our full client base.

People, not software, remain accountable for what you receive. The safeguards:

• AI-assisted work uses de-identified or aggregate data by default.
• Any use of tokenized PHI requires a signed business associate agreement with the provider, your written authorization, and a logged approval.
• Tokens are never linked across clients.
• Client data is never sold or used to train models.

What does this mean for your MMOA and other audits? A new world of insight from your standard tracking data, built on 30 years of Mammologix experience and delivered without exposing PHI. To obtain patient names or identities, you will still ask Mammologix to unlock PHI through a separate, offline method unavailable to standard users. Your data is your data: any client who terminates their terms of service will always be given a mechanism to unlock the tokenization foundation, at no additional charge. Standard reports requiring a listing of patient PHI will continue on the current analytical platform.

Mammologix is a fulfillment partner, and that means people helping people. Mammologix is not software. Our team remains accountable for what you receive.

Starting today, September 14, 2026, the FDA is transitioning MQSA certificate and letter delivery away from postal mail and onto a new online system, the MQSA Facility Portal. Full implementation completes October 22, 2026.

As your Fulfillment Partner, our support team works diligently to track FDA and MQSA program changes like this as part of our MammoComply service, so you don't have to catch it on your own or find out about it at inspection.

We've prepared a complete advisory covering exactly what's changing, who is affected, and the specific steps your facility should take before the transition completes, including verifying your FDA contacts and updating your download and display procedure.

Be sure to share this with the Accreditation Contact, the Most Responsible Individual, and the Inspection Contact. You may also want to share it with your Practice Administrator, Quality Assurance Manager, Lead Interpreting Physician, or anyone else involved in the compliance process at your location.

Read the full advisory here, including 8 things your facility should be doing now

This is the kind of regulatory tracking and translation we handle for our client facilities every day. If you have questions about how this applies to your facility, or want help walking through the checklist, reach out to us anytime.

In observance of Labor Day, Mammologix will be closed Monday, September 7, and our regular office hours will resume on Tuesday, September 8.

Should you have an immediate need while our office is closed, please call 1-800-739-6919 and ask for the Administrator on Call. We will be happy to assist you.

From all of us at Mammologix, we wish you, your team, and your families a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.

We are pleased to introduce a new home for our Monthly Progress Notes.

Each month, we provide our clients with an update on what Mammologix is delivering, what is currently underway, what we are planning for the months ahead, and other work and developments we believe you may want to follow.

Beginning with this new format, these updates will also be available on our website so you can easily return to them whenever needed.

Visit Mammologix.com and look for Monthly Progress Notes under Resources in the website footer.

We hope this becomes a useful way to stay connected with the work taking place behind the scenes on your behalf.

Another exciting change is coming during September.

The content you have come to know through the KnowledgeHub is moving directly into Mammologix.com/Resources, where it will become part of our growing Knowledge Hub.

All of your favorite articles, and many new resources, will be brought together in one place alongside our expanding knowledge areas:

MammoTrack • MammoCommunicate • MammoNavigate • MammoComply • MammoLibrary • MammoToolbox

Our goal is to make it easier for breast imaging professionals to find practical information, tools, research, operational guidance, and compliance resources without having to search across multiple locations.

Visit Mammologix.com/Resources and explore the Knowledge Hub. Be on the lookout throughout September as even more content makes its way to its new home.

Have you ever wondered how much economic impact your breast imaging program creates beyond the mammogram itself?

Breast imaging is often viewed primarily in terms of the examinations performed within the department. But screening can begin a much broader pathway involving diagnostic imaging, biopsy, cancer detection, treatment, and other downstream services throughout the healthcare organization.

The Mammologix Downstream Revenue Estimator was created to help breast imaging leaders explore that bigger picture.

The estimator models a mammography program across three distinct components (the screening base, diagnostic referral base, and downstream cascade) and allows you to replace the model's defaults with information specific to your own practice.

Using published benchmarks, reimbursement information, peer-reviewed literature, and documented assumptions, the calculator provides an interactive way to explore the potential economic contribution generated by your breast imaging program.

Just as importantly, the methodology is transparent. The formulas, assumptions, defaults, methodology notes, and validation work behind the estimator are available for review.

For breast imaging leaders preparing for conversations with administration, finance, or organizational leadership, it can provide an entirely different perspective on the value their program contributes across the larger healthcare enterprise.

Explore the Downstream Revenue Estimator in MammoToolbox.

Clear communication is an essential part of the patient experience, particularly when patients are receiving information about their mammography results and what they may need to do next.

This fall, Mammologix will begin providing each of our clients with a complimentary review of their patient letters using the AHRQ Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool, or PEMAT, at no additional charge.

Developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the PEMAT provides a structured method for assessing two important characteristics of patient education materials:

Understandability: how effectively patients of different backgrounds and health literacy levels can process and explain the material's key messages.

Actionability: how effectively patients can identify what they should do based on the information provided.

Our courtesy report will give your facility an additional perspective on how its patient letters perform using this established assessment framework. Where opportunities are identified, our team will also be available to discuss the findings and assist with potential improvements you may wish to consider.

The goal is simple: to help ensure that the information reaching your patients is not only delivered reliably, but is as understandable and actionable as possible.

You can also explore the Mammologix PEMAT Scoring Instrument and additional information about the methodology in the MammoToolbox.