Mobile Mammography

Statistics has it that one woman in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime and one out of thirty three women will definitely die from it. This hence makes mobile mammography an effective solution to bring breast examination and screening services closer to women above the age of 40 and hence reducing the risks of deaths emanating from breast cancer.

Large populations of women who are over the age of 40 around the world live in the countryside and this makes it rather difficult for them to visit health institutions for mammograms. These units therefore take breast health care to underserved populations, working women in industrial sites, community and even church groups. These mammograms are henceforth key to lifesaving early detection of breast cancer. These on-site mammograms are as confidential and safe just as going to a fixed health center.

A mobile mammography unit will mostly consist of a specialized trailer towed by a truck . The trailer house specialized machines like the x-ray machines and the necessary computer hardware. The unit will consist of almost every aspect from articles, machines to cabins used for undressing and dressing. The unit temperature is modified and kept as room temperature. The staff consisting of radiologists who read the photo images and technologists are mostly of female gender and are effectively trained. This improves the confidentiality factor.

Another option of erecting a mobile examination and screening unit is by hiring buildings for a short period. Necessary mammogram equipments are towed into the building and a temporary examination center established. These specialized x-ray machines are rather expensive and not all rural medical facilities have them hence a mobile unit could be hired and erected with the existing infrastructure.

Mobile mammography is since a cost effective and an inexpensive exercise for it reduces the cost of transport to travelling to medical centers. Women will be screened for a few minutes and then go back to attend to their other duties hence saving time. Developments have been made towards making the units even more portable hence cost effective.

Modern mobile screening units have features which make it even more convenient. The digital image data transfer through low bandwidth networks and citrix software solutions, information systems are made available to other health centers via the network. The mammogram data is hence made available to a cancer centre in real-time and the image data sent securely. This screening information is transferred within minutes and the system automatically links the report to an existing patient database.

The mammogram results can be directly communicated to the examinee or to the examinees physician in form of a typed report. This takes just a few days and should the results be abnormal, the patient is contacted and follow up care is then conveniently advised.

Women above the age of 40 need to undertake mammograms at least once in a year. This is to facilitate early detection of breast cancer which is effectively treated at its early stages of development. Statistics estimate that one third of breast cancer in America annually could be prevented by early detection. It is for this reason that makes mobile mammography which brings these services closer to many underserved women in the world a great initiative and success.