Rochester Regional Health has unveiled a new mobile mammography center.
The pink and blue RV-style vehicle will roam Monroe County and seven surrounding counties.
It’s an important way to increase the number of women who get screened for breast cancer, said Katherine Rogala, Rochester Regional’s vice president of women’s health. The health benefits of catching cancer early with the tests available in the mobile units are substantial, she said. “They can detect breast cancer at its earliest stage, when it’s most treatable. The survival rates for women who have had the breast cancer detected early are very high.”
Rogala said women told Rochester Regional staff that regular business hours weren’t working for them, and they needed a more convenient way to get their screenings. The mobile center will work with businesses and places of worship to connect with women at the places they go in their daily lives, Rogala said.
The center is funded by a state grant to encourage women to get screened for breast cancer. It’s one of two western New York mobile mammography units to receive the funding. The other is at Windsong Radiology in Buffalo.
Rogala said the vehicle’s benefits will extend beyond the services offered in its interior. “It’s essentially a traveling billboard, so any day it’s on the road—and we plan to have it on the road six days a week—you’ll see it rolling down the highway,” she said. “It’s a reminder: ‘hey, I need to take care of myself.’”
The crew of the mobile mammography center is set to see their first patient in mid-August. A calendar with the unit's schedule is available here.
