Based on the results of the 2 pilot mammographic screening projects in Nijmegen and Utrecht, a population-based programme was set up in the Netherlands in 1989. The main characteristics of the programme are the centralised organisation including centralised technical and medical quality control and audit, the 2-year interval between examinations, and the eligible age of 50-74. The National Expert and Training Centre in Nijmegen is responsible for the technical and medical quality control and the National Evaluation Team in Rotterdam for the data collection evaluation and annual reporting of the performance results. After 15 years, the Dutch breast cancer screening programme can be regarded as an effective health care intervention at reasonable costs. A new challenge for the Dutch screening programme is the planed transformation of analogue to digital screening within the next 2 years. It will be a major logistic operation with many, at this moment still unforeseen obstacles.
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Holland et al. (2007) studied this question.
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