Type Test Equipment

General Information

Manufacturers and users have expressed the need for type testing at a European level. For that reason EUREF decided to organise and standardise type testing for mammography systems at the European level. The standards applied in the EUREF type testing are based on chapter two of the fourth edition of the European Guidelines. This chapter can be found in the download section of this website.

EUREF type testing is defined as a test (1) to verify whether a type of system is able to pass the acceptability criteria of the European protocol, (2) to provide guidelines about the best practice in terms of dose and (clinical) image quality. After a successful type test, individual mammography units of the same and type brand still need to undergo an acceptance test before clinical use. Passing the type test only guarantees that the system is in principle capable of meeting the requirements of the European Protocol and the report may list suggestions for optimal use or conditions to be avoided in practice.

EUREF type tests are currently performed on digital mammography units (DR and CR systems). In future EUREF type testing may be performed on image processing algorithms, workstations and film digitisers.