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Breast Services at Phelps Designated American College of Radiology Center of Excellence

(March 3, 2011) The Breast Imaging Center at Phelps Memorial Hospital has been designated a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology (ACR). By awarding facilities this status, the ACR recognizes breast imaging centers that have earned accreditation in mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy, and breast ultrasound (including ultrasound-guided breast biopsy).

Peer-review evaluations, conducted in each breast imaging technique by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field, have determined that Phelps has achieved high practice standards in image quality, personnel qualifications, facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs.

“Phelps is very fortunate that Dr. Norman Lee, a noted breast imaging specialist and our current director of breast imaging, joined our staff at the beginning of 2010,” says Robert Perelman, MD, Director of the Department of Radiology. “The designation Dr. Lee and his staff have earned from the American College of Radiology means that women can confidently choose Phelps with the knowledge that the breast imaging services they receive will meet or exceed national standards.”

A graduate of New York Medical College, Dr. Lee is board certified in Diagnostic Radiology and fellowship trained in Breast Imaging. He completed his internship in Internal Medicine at Yale University-Hospital of St. Raphael and his residency in radiology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, with a breast imaging fellowship at the same institution the following year. He then continued to hone his skills by serving as a clinical assistant professor of radiology at the breast imaging department of Columbia University Presbyterian Hospital, before he embarked on his private practice career.

“Women can receive state-of-the-art breast imaging evaluation at Phelps,” says Robert J. Raniolo, MD, Chief of General Surgery and founder of Hudson Valley Surgical Breast Specialists. “Few imaging centers have attained this level of expertise and accreditation. The bar has been raised at Phelps with the addition of Dr. Lee.”

The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 34,000 diagnostic/ interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs focusing on the practice of medical imaging and radiation oncology and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.