Mobile Mammograms: Meeting Women Where They Are
Boston has long been a melting pot, rich in ideas, cultures, and opportunity. Scholars from around the world study and work in the many prestigious universities and medical centers of the area, potentially leading to enhanced educational and medical access. For many of the city’s residents, however, the wealth of knowledge, technological advances, and medical care is out of reach.
Many minority and low-income residents routinely face linguistic, economic, cultural, and logistical roadblocks that prevent adequate health care access, even as medical advances are racing forward for the more affluent.
Dana-Farber’s Community Benefits Program is the Institute’s division devoted to reducing cancer risks for low-income populations in the greater Boston area. Working with community organizations and neighborhood health clinics, Dana-Farber Institute has built a network of sustainable programs to address this disparity of cancer detection and care.
One of their most impressive success stories is the Mobile Mammography Van. Reaching inner city housing developments, ethnic communities, and outlying villages the van is bringing screening opportunities where none previously existed.
Since 2002, the van has provided over 25,000 mammograms, and in 2009 it screened almost 4,000 patients. Emphasis is placed on notification of yearly revisits and in 2009, 64% were return patients.
The Breast Cancer Relief Foundation (TBCRF) is proud to be a longstanding supporter of the Dana-Farber program. We believe, as they do, that all women deserve the opportunity to conquer breast cancer – and early detection is the most vital issue in this fight. Statically, 1 in 8 women in the United States will develop breast cancer within their lifetime, but the survival rate has grown to almost 90%. With many new advances in treatment options for breast cancer, this disease has become eminently treatable, especially when diagnosed at an early stage.
TBCRF has supported annual grants to underwrite expenses for the van, and last year, we helped them purchase a new van outfitted with state-of-the-art digital mammography equipment. The new digital capability allows more accurate screening with less patient callbacks, resulting in a higher individual screening total.
Dana-Farber and the community health clinics also provide social service navigators and translators for all patients to help them understand and utilize the full extent of health care services available to them in Massachusetts. This brings hundreds of formerly ‘off-the-radar’ individuals and families into the system to receive free or low-cost health care.
During our most recent visit, we had the pleasure of meeting a few core members of the team. Mammogram van technologists, Donna Orlando and Ellen Moore, along with Kayla Zaremski, the van case worker/navigator, are passionate and committed advocates, working long days in the field when the van is out. Patients have come to know and trust them, looking forward to their yearly appointment. Maureen Akisik, the Supervisor of Breast Imaging, works tirelessly to ensure a seamless van-to-radiology-to-patient experience. Heading up the group is Anne Levine, Vice President of External Affairs, who has brought the process to the high level of efficiency it currently holds. The many thanks that they gave us for our support was truly humbling as we watched them in action serving women in need.
The 63 patients diagnosed with breast cancer from screenings performed on the van provide statistical evidence of the value of Dana-Farber’s mammogram van program. More importantly, it means that 63 underserved women have had the benefit of early detection and a helping hand to find the treatment options that are available. These 63 women, who because of lack of means, might otherwise have been overlooked, undiagnosed, and untreated, have been afforded the opportunity to fight and conquer their breast cancer. That is the goal of TBCRF and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute!
