Certificate in Breast Imaging – Screening (CBIS)

The CBIS program includes coursework that must be completed:

• Breast Imaging 1 (taken as a full-length course or challenge exam)
• Breast Imaging 2 (taken as a full-length course or challenge exam)
• Bring your Position Upfront: Breast Positioning  (a short lecture): see below for details 
• Breast Cancer: An Overview (a short QSS) : see below for details  

Recent Changes to our Courses (2026)

• Breast Imaging 1 and 2 have been revised as of Fall 2026. 
• If you take the revised Breast Imaging 1 course, you do not need to separately enroll in Bring your Position Upfront: Breast Positioning (Virtual Lecture) or Breast Cancer: An Overview (QSS), they are included in the updated Breast Imaging 1 (Fall 2026 or later, only).  Reach out to CPD if you have questions, please. 

Already registered in the CBIS?  

• These changes will not affect you, as you have completed the CBIS pre-requisites of Breast Imaging 1 and Breast Imaging 2 and the virtual lecture. Your eligible (recent, passed) completed courses will continue to be accepted into the CBIS program (or CBID, if you intend to take both certificates). You still need to register for and complete the QSS before your program expires, and follow the handbook from your year of registration.  

Not yet registered in the CBIS? 

We have updated our breast imaging courses. Revised Breast Imaging 1 & 2 have launched for this fall 2026 term.

Major changes:

• No textbook is required for the updated Breast Imaging 1 & 2 (there is a recommended text). 
• The virtual lecture and quick self-study required in the certificate programs have been integrated into Breast Imaging 1, and the cost will increase slightly, as of Winter 2027. You will not need to separately register into that lecture and module.  
• See Program Updates section for more details

Experienced in breast imaging? Candidates who feel that they have the essential knowledge gained through relevant experience/education may challenge the final exams for each full-length course.

All certificate program components (didactic, experience requirement and clinical component) must be completed within a 5-year timeframe. The 5-year timeframe starts upon successful completion of the first eligible Breast Imaging full-length course and not upon registration into the CBI program, and is described in full in the Handbook.

Candidates must register in each course and achieve a minimum score of 75% on each final examination (not final course grade) applied to the program. The courses must be recent to be eligible for the certificate program – the default is that all courses should be less than 5 years old to be applied to the program. You can find certificate-related content on our catalogue here. Full course policies are available on our website, by request, and upon registration, and include information on registering, failure of exams/quizzes, access, academic integrity, rewrites, and fees. You, as a candidate, are bound by these policies – please review them carefully and ask CAMRT if you have questions.

Enrollment into the certificate (which allows access to and review of the clinical component “logbook”) will only be made available to eligible candidates who completed the pre-requisite exam(s) with the minimum exam grade. Note that a separate fee applies to the certificate registration. The SCC can be downloaded after registration. Please note that staff need to manually review your registration, so they will apply eligible courses and update your start/end date on the program profile after registration.

The clinical component requires:

• Candidates to be practicing in screening breast imaging under the supervision of a clinical advisor (CA). It is the candidate’s responsibility to identify a CA and to find a suitable clinical setting for the clinical component of this program.
• Completion of an SCC in the required time frame. Candidates have three (3) years from the date of the first clinical entry to complete the SCC “logbook”, or must complete by the end of the 5-year timeline, whichever is sooner. The SCC includes experience requirements, image requirements, and the requirement to perform a minimum of 750 mammograms (2 view bilateral, CC, MLO).
• The SCC may not be submitted until all courses and the exam logbook is complete. All components must be complete within the five-year timeframe of your program, which is defined in the Handbook.
• Please review the program updates section of this webpage for recent changes to the SCC (2026).

Clinical Advisor

The clinical component requires the candidate to identify a clinical advisor (CA). The CA must:

• Be a medical radiation technologist practicing in screening breast imaging
• Have a minimum of five years’ experience in screening breast imaging
• Not be currently registered in either CBIS or CBID Certificate Programs
• Perform the assessment on the candidate for performance of procedures/related competencies or delegate assessment to another breast imaging technologist. Please note, if the CA is not a specific subject matter expert, a Delegated Assessor (DA) is required.

Note: A clinical advisor with a CBIS (or previous “CBI”) is preferred but not mandatory. For international candidates, see requirement documentation under the section that follows.

Clinical Advisor/Delegated Assessor (DA) signatures in the SCC indicate that a CA or DA has witnessed competent practice for the procedure multiple times prior to the date of final assessment. A signature verifies that the technologist has consistently shown they have the knowledge, skill, and judgement to be declared competent in this aspect of practice. The failure of the candidate in any of key areas outlined in the assessment of performance of clinical procedures means that the competency should *not be signed* and retraining is required before completion of the SCC line. Please take the time you need to feel confident in signing off on these modules – the process of attaining competency is iterative.

All exams in the SCC must follow registration into the certificate program (i.e. registering for the CBID).

Please submit all correspondence and SCC (in a single PDF submission that includes your name) via email. Incomplete submissions are subject to a resubmission fee ($50 CAD).

Internationally Educated Medical Radiation Technologists (IEMRTs)

Documentation required from IEMRTs must be submitted via email. Please provide:

• Notarized copy of diploma /degree/certificate from entry-level education program (WES documentation, attested true copies by an attorney who is a member of their regulator can also be accepted).
• Original letter from entry-level education program verifying length of program to include both didactic and clinical components.
• IEMRT Attestation Letter
• Required documentation not received within 30 days of program registration will result in a program cancellation/partial refund.

CAMRT strongly recommends candidates obtain required documentation prior to program registration and send by email within the required timeframe. Candidates may only begin working on the Summary of Clinical Competence upon approval of received documentation from CAMRT.

International Clinical Advisors

In addition to meeting all shared requirements for the Clinical Advisor, and international Clinical Advisor must provide the following documentation via email within 30 days of program registration:

• A notarized copy of the clinical advisor’s credentials (degree, diploma, or certificate; attested true copies by an attorney who is a member of their regulator can also be accepted)
• Clinical Advisor Verification of Experience
• Clinical Advisor (CA) Check List

Required documentation not received within 30 days of program registration will result in a program cancellation/partial refund. CAMRT strongly recommends candidates obtain required documentation prior to program registration and send by email within the required timeframe. Candidates may only begin working on the Summary of Clinical Competence upon approval of received documentation from CAMRT.

January 2026

SCC Experience Change:

• Dedicated time in your specialty is still required, but the experience timeline has been streamlined. The SCC may be submitted in no fewer than 10 weeks after registration into the certificate program during which you must be working dedicated full-time in your specialty under supervision of your CA in screening mammography for CBIS and diagnostic mammography for CBID (no fewer than 350 hours of experience is accepted). This is not the timeframe that you need to complete your entire SCC in – this is the least time that you can spend in the clinical part of the program.
• The SCC’s Experience page, including required mammograms, has been made more clear to reduce confusion and paperwork.
• Note, this does not imply that this “standard” amount of time needed to complete every SCC, but is intended to allow a streamlined pathway through the experience requirement for candidates who continually display competence in all elements of the SCC (i.e. those with years of experience who have only recently joined the program), after meeting standardized didactic requirements. The failure of the candidate in any of key areas outlined in the assessment of performance of clinical procedures means that the competency should *not be signed* and retraining is required before completion of the SCC line. Please take the time you need to feel confident in signing off on these modules – the process of attaining competency is iterative.

Return to Work form:

• Following extended leaves, the CBI has created a Return to Work Declaration that should be included with your SCC. The intent of this form is to formalize that all participants in the program (candidate, CA) feel supported and comfortable returning to work on the SCC after an extended absence from work.
• Please contact CAMRT if you have questions regarding its use or would like to request a Return to Work Declaration.

SCC and Handbook Updates

• Changes have been made to CBIS/CBID image evaluation criteria to enhance understanding. This includes the addition of specific criteria to meet when reviewing images for the SCC & the addition of image declaration of quality, to be signed by the CA or authorized agent, that includes criteria met.
• Enhanced definitions and direction for the Assessment of Performance of Clinical Procedures is added to the SCC to support the CA/DA and candidate understand what these procedure signatures represent.
• Expanded and clearer descriptions of the roles of the CA and DA are added to the SCC and Handbook.
• Competency descriptions have been embedded into the sign-off charts, making it simpler to see what criteria (at a minimum) need to be met for an exam line to be signed off.
• Multiple DA/CA signature pages have been added to better organize the use of more than 1 CA or DA.

Fall 2026 Course Revisions

The CBIS program includes coursework that must be completed. Breast Imaging 1 and 2 have been revised as of Fall 2026.

Already registered in the CBIS?  

• These changes will not affect you, as you have completed the CBIS pre-requisites of Breast Imaging 1 and Breast Imaging 2 and the virtual lecture. Your eligible (recent, passed) completed courses will continue to be accepted into the CBIS program (or CBID, if you intend to take both certificates). You still need to register for and complete the QSS before your program expires, and follow the handbook from your year of registration.  

 Not yet registered in the CBIS? 

We have updated our breast imaging courses. Revised Breast Imaging 1 & 2 have launched for this fall 2026 term.

Major changes: 

• No textbook is required for the updated Breast Imaging 1 & 2 (there is a recommended text). 

• The virtual lecture and quick self-study required in the certificate programs have been integrated into Breast Imaging 1, and the cost will increase slightly, as of Winter 2027. You will not need to separately register into that lecture and module.  

What do you need to do? 

• If you are in progress taking the breast imaging courses (i.e. you’ve taken the old BI1 and are going to take the new BI2), you can continue on and take the next course in the series. The edits were made to allow you to continue without taking any special action. 

• If you already have your textbook from BI1, it will continue to be an asset as you take the revised BI2. 

• If you successfully took the virtual lecture or QSS required for the CBIS or CBID program before registering into the revised BI1, we will transfer those eligible grades into your program – no action required from you. Contact us if you have questions. 

• If you are planning to take Imaging Breast Pathology, you can choose to either take it this fall (the existing course) or wait to register the revised course in Winter term 2027. If you want to wait for the revised course and need an extension to your certificate program to accommodate that, please reach out to inquire.

 Questions? Please email specialtycertificates@camrt.ca 

Context:

For your knowledge, routine course revisions happen on a regular basis, with more significant changes possible on an approximate 5-year revision cycle. In this case, a larger revision was undertaken on all three courses to ensure that they include updated content, are progressive, avoid repetition and are strictly aligned to the needs of the CBIS and CBID programs. We were also able to remove a required textbook from the courses, to try to assist in making these more accessible. Significant source material updates (guidelines, recommendations) also drove this update.

Imaging Breast Pathology is undergoing final updates and is planned for release for Winter 2027 term.

January 2023:

As of January 2023, a change was made to no longer require a prerequisite experience prior to registration into the CBI programs.

As of January 2023, the experience requirement changed, and the candidate in the 2023-2025 programs must practice breast imaging for at least 16 weeks within an 18-month block within the five-year timeframe of the certificate program (2023). Before that, that the programs required a minimum of 1450 hours as a practicing mammography technologist over the 3 years preceding entry into the CBIS program (2020). This has since been replaced for all new registrants in CBIS 2026 and onwards.

January 2021:

Mammography 1 and Mammography 2 stop being accepted as pre-requisites for the CBI programs. The new Breast Imaging courses provide comprehensive coverage of current mammography practice, adjunctive imaging modalities, and address advances in technology, including breast tomosynthesis.

Contact specialtycertificates@camrt.ca for more information.

Please review this for an overview of representative course objectives and SCC content. This is for illustrative example only, review the Handbook and SCC for the year of your registration for full details or contact us for more information. You must have access to all mandatory procedures/competencies to complete your program.

• Course objectives
• SCC overview