Mammographers: Mobile mammography delivers healthcare to Native American women

Mammographers

Mobile mammography delivers healthcare to Native American women

Approximately 10 percent of Native American women over the age of 40 receive an annual screening for breast cancer. This year, the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center is doing its part to increase that number by providing a mobile mammography program to Native American women in North Dakota and South Dakota.

Under the program, a truck equipped with mammography equipment will visit reservations up to 100 miles from the closest healthcare facility. Screening images will be transmitted via satellite to the breast imaging division at the university, where they will be analyzed and reports returned to patients in less than an hour for most cases. Last summer's pilot program—and a separate study by the National Cancer Institute—concluded that digital mammograms could be transmitted rapidly by satellite without loss of image quality.

Source: Baker, M.L. (2006, December 6). Digital mammography brings cancer screening to remote reservations. Eweek.com|~ . Retrieved February 13, 2007, from www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2069886,00.asp|~