What is a Breast Physician?
What is a Breast Physician?
Breast physicians are doctors who specialise in managing breast disease. This includes diagnosing and treating breast symptoms that are not related to breast cancer (benign) and working with other specialists to care for patients with breast cancer. Breast Physicians work throughout Australia and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom doctors with similar training are called breast clinicians.
Breast physicians commonly work in the following settings:
- private breast clinics
- public hospital breast clinics
- national breast screening services (BreastScreen Australia; BreastScreen Aotearoa)
- private consulting rooms.
In these settings we work together with breast surgeons and breast radiologists (doctors who specialise in breast imaging and diagnosis.)
Breast physicians receive training in all the areas involved in diagnosing and managing breast diseases. This includes:
- experience in the symptoms and signs of both benign (non-cancer) and malignant (cancer) breast diseases
- management of hormones related to breast disease
- interpretation of breast imaging (mammogram/breast x-ray, breast ultrasound and MRI)
- breast biopsy and pre-operative localisation
- working with teams of doctors, nurses and other health providers to plan and coordinate surgery and other treatments
- counselling and educating patients about breast disease and treatment options
- surveillance and ongoing care of patients who have undergone breast cancer treatment and those at increased risk of developing breast cancer.