Picture this: A patient walks into MU Health Care's Ellis Fischel Cancer Center and gets a mammogram.
Now, picture this: A patient walks into MU Health Care's new mobile mammography unit and gets a mammogram.
What is the difference between both visits in terms of quality of care and screening? There isn't one.
On Monday, MU Health Care revealed its new mobile mammography unit -- in a trailer. The mammography services were formerly in a van.
Since the conception of MU Health Care's mobile mammography services in 1992, it has served 27 rural counties in Missouri, said Eric Maze, the MU Health Care public relations manager.
The trailer is equipped with the same 3D mammography equipment that is located at the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. The new unit emphasizes bringing life-saving services to patients in rural communities, considering the importance of catching breast cancers earlier.
"I cannot tell you how many times I've heard that (patients) are so thankful that we came to them," said mammographer Annette Berkley, who is servicing the new unit. "Because if we didn't, they wouldn't have their exam done."
Patients who traveled 50 miles, one hour or over an hour to receive treatment were associated with a more advanced disease once diagnosed, "The Oncologist," a medical journal, said in a study. Rural patients were twice as likely to have unstaged cancer, at 18.3 percent, whereas urban residents were recorded to have a 9.6 percent likelihood of unstaged cancer.
Additionally, the trailer has heating and cooling, higher ceilings and solar panels to increase energy efficiency. However, one thing has remained the same: the technology used to perform these services.
Maze said that the trailer makes for increased access and reliability, such as less maintenance compared to the van.
"Where you live should not determine the level of health care you receive, and this mobile unit ensures that (patients) in rural parts of our state have access to critical screenings and care close to home," Ric Ransom, MU Health Care's CEO, said in a news release.
Berkley said access to a mammogram is important since a self-examination may not be enough for a diagnosis.
"If you don't have a mammogram done, there is no way (mammographers) are going to be able to find breast cancer," Berkley said. "Unless you were to find a lump, and by the time you find a lump, and it is cancer, you have now let that disease progress."
Mammographers can detect breast cancer on a mammogram in its early stages, which a patient may not be able to feel.
"If you find a breast cancer in its very early stage, you've got a 98 percent chance that that breast cancer will not recur," Berkley said.
Women who receive mammograms have a 60 percent lower risk of dying from breast cancer than women who do not receive regular screenings, the medical journal "Cancer" said in a study.
The support and interest of the community, coupled with education on the importance of breast cancer screenings, is important to ensuring the longevity of the mobile unit, MU Health Care Oncologist Gerhard Hildebrandt said.
"In the end, the best treatment for any cancer is prevention," Hildebrandt said.
The work of the Missouri News Network is written by Missouri School of Journalism students and editors for publication by Missouri Press Association member newspapers.