1. A method for removing false positive elements from mammography image data, comprising the steps of: a) processing the image data to obtain a set of candidate microcalcifications; b) classifying each microcalcification in the set of candidate microcalcifications using a neural network; c) classifying each microcalcification in the set of candidate microcalcifications using a kernel based classifier; d) combining results of steps b) and c) to remove false positives and obtain a set of classified microcalcifications; e) grouping members of the set of classified microcalcifications to form a candidate set of microcalcification clusters; f) classifying each microcalcification cluster in the set of candidate microcalcification clusters using a neural network; g) classifying each microcalcification cluster in the set of candidate microcalcification clusters using a kernel based classifier; and h) combining results of steps f) and g) to remove false positives and obtain a set of classified microcalcification clusters.