Digital Mammography Comes to Greensboro

Hologic Selenia helps the Breast Center of Greensboro be the first to go digital in the Triad area

In December of 2006, the Breast Center of Greensboro Imaging, located in Greensboro, North Carolina, completed its transition to a completely digital workflow, with the installation of their third Selenia digital mammography unit.

"The Breast Center of Greensboro Imaging," says Preston Allen, MBA, the Executive Director of the Breast Center, "has long been the leader in providing service and technology to the women of the Triad [Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point ] area, and our new Selenia systems allow us to continue that leadership role."

The Digital Decision

According to Dr. Elizabeth Brown, Medical Director at the Breast Center, one of the most important factors in considering the move to digital was the publication of the results of the Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST)

"DMIST showed that digital mammograms were much better for younger women, and others who tend to have denser breast tissue," she says. "Because of the large number of younger women in our area, the DMIST merely confirmed our decision to move forward with digital. Once we understood the needs of the market in our area," Allen continues, "we knew that it was time to pursue digital mammography."

Patient Centered Care

For the Breast Center of Greensboro, the change to a digital workflow was one of the final steps in a transition begun over two years earlier, when the Center set out to redesign the entire patient experience of the Center. "We wanted to completely remake our Breast Center to be totally patient focused," Dr. Brown says, "this gave us the opportunity to completely take it apart and put it back together again, exactly the way we thought it should be."

Immediate Impact

The impact of the installation of the Breast Center's first Selenia was felt almost immediately, with a significant increase in the number of women coming to the Center for mammograms. As each of the three Selenia units was installed, the number of patients grew also. In January, the first full month of operating all three systems, the Breast Center saw 38% more patients, compared to the same period one year earlier.

There were several reasons for this impressive spike in patient volume. The first was that the Center conducted an aggressive media campaign to announce the arrival of digital. "Our marketing blitz announcing the new technology really generated a lot of buzz," Allen says.

The second was that the Center had begun offering extended service hours on the exact same day as the first Selenia was being installed. Allen says, "We were doing the install at the same time we were growing the business, and there was no impact on our ability to serve our new patients."