Mobile healthcare is nothing new but there is new technology behind it.
Mobile analog services using film mammography started in BC in 1990 and conduct approximately 10 percent of all screening mammograms. The program by the BC Cancer Agency visits women in 120 communities including 40 Indigenous ones.
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Digital mammography is a specialized form of mammography that uses digital receptors and computers instead of x-ray film to help examine breast tissue for breast cancer.
The fleet of three mobile units has now been fully converted digital technology thanks to funding from the Ministry of Health, The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Shoppers Drug Mart.
The province’s first digital mammography equipped vehicle started servicing rural areas and remote communities on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in 2015. The B.C Cancer Agency upgraded the other two mobile units this year which will service the Interior and the Lower Mainland.
Women over 40 can find their area’s service schedule or locate a year-round clinic at www.screeningbc.ca/breast.
Written by: Amar Mirchandani @amarmirch
