Bell Gets $400,000 in Grants for Digital Mammography Unit
Every three minutes a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer. In order to combat that statistic, Bell Hospital has unveiled its new GE full field digital mammography unit.
Bell announced that the $400,000 mammography unit, which has just been installed and is up and running at the new Bell Hospital, is being funded by a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a $200,000 grant from the Bell Foundation.
Bell is the only healthcare provider in Marquette County utilizing full field digital mammogram technology. All imaging technology at the recently opened hospital is digital, completely elimination the time element involved in using film process imaging equipment ranging from x-rays to mammograms. The USDA grant, along with the Bell Foundation match, will fully fund the unit’s purchase.
Superior Women’s Care OB/GYN specialist Paula Hubert pointed out that it is especially important for area woman to be aware of the options available to them in the fight against breast cancer.
She said, “What we at Bell are now able to offer rivals any diagnostic tool at any medical care facility in the country. Our full field digital mammography unit is state-of-the-art and a critical breast cancer diagnostic tool.”
According to Hubert, there are many advantages to a digital system. The images are clear and easy to read, and it offers a better view of the breast, especially near the skin line, chest wall and in women with diverse breast tissue types. The digital image is ready to read within 10 seconds – there is no longer a wait for films to be developed to be sure the images are usable. Digital mammograms take as little as half the time of film. And if a second opinion is needed, the image can be sent electronically to a consulting physician virtually instantaneously.
The new Bell system, a GE Healthcare Senographe Digital Mammography system, provides physicians with clear and precise all-digital images, rather than images on X-ray film. What’s more, the system provides the largest field of view currently available, which can be extremely helpful for precision imaging of diverse patients.
Hubert said that she and her four OB/GYN specialist colleagues at Superior Women’s Care recommend that women over the age of 45 undergo a mammogram annually. Women with a family history of cancer should begin the annual exam even earlier, she said. Hubert recommended women consult their physician about their individual exam needs.
Bell Hospital qualified for a $200,000 grant from the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program. According to the USDA, the program “is specifically designed to meet the educational and health needs of rural America through the use of advanced telecommunications technologies.”
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