ALTOONA, Wis. (WEAU) – According to the CDC, one in eight women will get breast cancer in their lifetime. Getting regular breast screenings is an important part of hopefully catching breast cancer early. Prevea Health and its hospital partners are working to make mammogram screenings more accessible through the Mobile Mammography Unit.
The CDC states each year, more than 250,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Last year, Prevea Health and its hospital partners launched a Mobile Mammography Unit to help women in rural communities get access to mammogram screenings.
“We are trying to reach women in further away communities who don’t have access to drive a long distance to get their mobile mammogram in a larger community,” Megan Bauer, Prevea Mobile Imaging Coordinator, said.
The mobile unit is a service Kristin Rubenzer, who works in Prevea Family Medicine, Menomonie, said benefitted some of her patients.
“When patients don’t have to travel to the nearest hospital and they can come to their local clinics for mammography, it just makes things so much easier,” Rubenzer said. “I have definitely noticed my patients are more apt to complete their mammogram.”
The Mobile Mammography Unit has the same equipment that is used in hospitals and offers both 2-D and 3-D screening mammograms.
“Women can have a mammogram on the bus as long as they’re 40 years old and have no symptoms,” Bauer said. “We see a lot of women that this is their first time even getting a mammogram.”
Prevea Health reports in the first 14 months of the mobile unit, 723 patients received mammograms. Nearly 100 of those patients had their first screening.
“I know that I have patients who, I’ve tried to get them to go get their mammograms, and finally having this bus available, they have finally done their screening,” Rubenzer said.
The mobile unit travels to clinics in Altoona, Augusta, Cornell, Ladysmith, Menomonie, Mondovi and Rice Lake.
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