Making a difference
with mobile digital mammography

One of the greatest contributions digital mammography can make is improving access to quality mammography in rural areas, where populations are likely to be underserved. Vans with Hologic Selenia systems are operating in the mountains of Spain, the north sea coast of Germany, the deserts of Saudi Arabia, and a number of places in the United States.


“The greatest challenge in Alaska is access,” said Denise Farleigh, M.D., medical director of Providence Imaging Center, an independent diagnostic imaging facility in Anchorage, AK.

When their analog mobile unit was no longer serviceable, their van was replaced by a 33-foot mammography suite equipped with a Selenia and R2 ImageChecker computer-aided detection. “Some women have never had screenings before,” said Susan Kessler, the lead technologist for the mobile unit, “or if they did, they did not have them regularly, because getting to Anchorage is a huge deal for many of them. Some of these women live way out, in small cabins, some of them don’t have running water. It’s a huge effort to get to Anchorage to get an exam and yet, because of this unit, these women can get the latest in breast imaging technology.”