Stewart Memorial Community Hospital in Lake City will soon be offering digital mammography for women needing a mammogram. "Our goal is to have the new digital mammography equipment ready for patients by the middle of May," stated Leah Marxen, Chief Executive Officer. The process to bring in digital mammography to Stewart Memorial started in 2009 when a grant was written and submitted to the USDA for $89,400. On April 15th, the hospital was notified that their grant was successful and they would receive 100% of the $89,400 they applied for. "We are extremely excited to be able to offer digital mammography to women," stated Marxen. The total project cost is $255,450 and Marxen says the grant money relieves some of the financial responsibility of purchasing the equipment. "The USDA grant will pay for one-third of the cost of the project and will allow us to offer state-of-the-art mammography technology," noted Marxen.
While women will not notice a difference in how the exam is performed, the benefits of digital mammography are many according to Mary Reiter, Director of Radiology. "One of the benefits is the significant decrease in the amount of time it will take to get their mammogram test results. With a digital mammography system, images of the breast can be stored on our Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS) and sent to Des Moines electronically. The PACS system stores digital images that can be viewed instantly, much like storing your digital camera images on your home computer. With the digital system, mammograms can be viewed by a Board Certified Mammography Radiologist in Des Moines within hours instead of a week or ten days later because we no longer have to mail hard copies of the images", stated Reiter.
Another benefit of digital mammography is the quality of the image taken and the ability to enhance the image. "With a digital picture, magnification, orientation, brightness, and contrast of the image may be altered after the exam is completed to help the radiologist more clearly see certain areas. In other words, the image can be enlarged and a physician can "zoom-in" on the exact spot in question on the breast. With this technology available, the chance of catching breast cancer early is much greater," says Reiter. Digital images also help show clearly defined margins of a lesion in the breast so you can see the difference between a benign (no cancer) and malignant (cancerous) lesion.
Stewart Memorial Community Hospital will be installing the digital mammography equipment in early May and plan to offer the new service mid-May. For more information, please call the Radiology department at 712-464-4207.
