Marshfield Clinic Receives Grant from Susan G. Komen Foundation
Wednesday, June 6th, 2018 -- 9:24 AM
(WDLB) -Hundreds more Marshfield Clinic patients will get screened for breast cancer, thanks to a grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation.Representatives of the foundation stopped in Marshfield yesterday to present the Clinic’s Mobile Mammography division with a check for 24-thousand dollars. Gloria Singleton-Young is the Mission Manager for the Komen Foundation’s southeast Wisconsin chapter.
Gloria: "One of the reasons why this is important because of exactly what Marshfield does. They take their mobile unit and they go around this area primarily, but the do also go outside of the Marshfield area, into the rural areas where they are able to assist women with getting a mammogram, where they may or may not be able to afford it or maybe there's fear or discussion on this is what we can do and how we can help you. So, the grant is so they can assist more women. This is something they would probably be doing anyway because of the commitment for the hospital or this area. But having the funds gives them the opportunity to reach more women."
Radiologist Dr. Kristie Guite says the Komen Foundation grant will allow her department’s mobile unit to provide roughly 330 THREE-D mammographies to underserved areas of central Wisconsin.
Kristie: "We know that the 3D mammogram is better than the regular mammogram. It allows us to take, instead of a single picture of the mammogram, it takes multiple pictures, essentially creating a 3D model of the breast and that allows us to separate out breast tissues and find cancers that might be hidden in that breast tissue. So, we know that this finds more breast cancers, it finds cancers earlier and certainly helps mortality from breast cancer when women get screened. So, this is something that has been really great for us to do and now we can offer this to a larger group of patients who wouldn't have had it otherwise."
Dr. Guite’s program serves roughly seven-thousand patients per year, and sees patients from all corners of the state. THREE-D mammography technology is fairly new. Marshfield Clinic has had it for almost three years, and Dr. Guite is pushing to expand its use in her department. The challenge is that most insurance companies don’t cover it??"so the Komen Foundation grant is pivotal in providing those more-accurate images.
Kristie: "We have had lots of talks with them and most interested companies want to see that cost benefit. They want to see that it does find more breast cancers better, smaller and earlier. Where treatment is cheaper, more effective and easier. We know that 3D does that, it's just a matter of getting them to agree to that additional cost. Because it does take more time to look at. There are many more images that are taken and it takes a little more time to acquire. And of course, it is a little more expensive."
Marshfield Clinic Health System has three mobile mammography units. During one-on-one mammography screening, licensed and certified female technicians conduct a thorough medical history, answer questions and perform an exam. Images are sent by computer to radiologists in the Clinic system for analysis and results.
The mobile units have traveled to 70 of the state’s 72 counties, often stopping at businesses and public spaces. In 2016, nearly 58-hundred patients were seen in Marshfield Clinic’s mobile mammography units. 26 positive tests for breast cancer were found during those exams and subsequent testing. Marshfield Clinic’s first digital mobile mammography unit went into service in 2007. At the time, it was the first digital mammography unit operating in the Midwest.
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