Upstate University Hospital’s mobile mammography van is celebrating five years on the road and has been a success in fighting the barriers to screening for breast cancer.
Since going on the road, the big blue and pink bus has traveled 47,000 miles, through 12 counties across central and northern New York, conducting more than 4,000 mammograms and detecting cancer in 17 patients.
Mammovan program manager Wendy Hunt said they set up in some more rural communities where transportation is an issue.
"And a place like Old Forge is ideal because they're like an hour and a half in either direction from any type of imaging center for the most, maybe an hour, but still it’s a distance," said Hunt.
The van is equipped with the same state-of-the-art screening technology found in clinics. Scans are read by licensed radiologists, and nurses follow up with the results. The van is out an average of four days a week and can provide breast cancer screening for up to 20 women a day.
“All around central, northern New York, we do screening mammograms for women who are 40 and older and we help them with their follow-up,” she said. “They help encourage them to come back to Upstate, but if they can't come back to Upstate we get them set up in other places so they can get that taken care of.”
The van was used for COVID testing during the pandemic, and Hunt said the mobile medical concept can be expanded further.
"So hopefully we'll be doing more than just mammograms,” she said. “We already offer colon screening kits. We're working with the We Matter program at Upstate. We offer colon screening kits to people and in the future, I'm hoping that we're going to be able to offer some other things too."
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women in New York.
To find a list of upcoming mobile mammography screenings, click here.
