Going Mobile in Alaska

Bringing Digital Mammography Technology to Outlying Areas

In Alaska, where the leading cause of death is cancer, access to the latest medical care and technology can mean the difference between life and death. "The key to saving lives is early detection," says Dr. Denise Farleigh, Medical Director of Providence Imaging Center, an independent diagnostic imaging facility in Anchorage. "The greatest challenge in Alaska is access."

The area's need for better access led the Imaging Center to institute their first mobile mammography screenings back in 1989, using a cargo van equipped with a Hologic Lorad Transpo unit.

The old unit, unfortunately, had begun to show its years. "It had simply run out its design life," says Dr. Farleigh. "Our mobile unit has always been very important to us, but there were some clients and sites that we had to stop visiting simply because we could not get the unit on the road."

In addition, the old system was limited in the places it could visit. The imaging unit had to be wheeled off the cargo van, and set up inside the site in a dedicated room with the power required to run the equipment. Not all sites had this kind of space available. And, during the long winter months, navigating the rolling unit across ice-choked parking lots could be a challenge.

A generous gift

Providence Imaging Center knew that if they were going to continue providing screening to the women in Anchorage and the outlying areas, they needed to replace the mobile unit. Funds had been earmarked for the purchase of a new vehicle equipped with an older screen-film Lorad system (the Center had recently upgraded their mammography equipment with the installation of three Hologic SeleniaT digital mammography systems).

Thanks to the Providence Alaska Foundation (PAF), a local non-profit group, and the generous support of the CARRS/Safeway supermarket chain, the entire cost for a new mobile unit was donated to the Imaging Center. The money had been raised through change put in collection jars by employees and customers of CARRS/Safeway. Impressively, the entire amount had been raised in only one month, October 2005, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The generosity of the PAF donation allowed the Center to use their funds, originally intended for a new coach, to purchase a new Selenia system for the mobile unit, thus ensuring that patients visiting the mobile coach will receive the same quality digital mammograms as the women who visit the Imaging Center in Anchorage.

"We were moving away from screen-film systems in the Imaging Center," explains Dr. Farleigh, "and having digital [on the mobile unit] makes it easier to make this transition."

Equipped with the new Selenia and R2 Computer Aided Detection system, the new mobile coach is a 34-foot self contained mammography suite, which can be driven to a site and parked. The women simply walk in to get their exams.