RT Image July 20, 2009 : Page 24FUNDING THE FUTURE While CBCC has definitely made a name for itself as a cru- sader for standardizing women’s healthcare to minority and low- income groups, the skyrocketing cost of medical imaging in today’s economy casts a shadow on its continued success. As other healthcare organizations have seen, costs from imaging vendors increase while reimbursement from federal program are lax in keeping up with the rate of inflation. “Most programs that provide breast and cervical cancer screening to low-income women are funded through federal funds from the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which was established through the Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act of 1990,” says Beck. “However, not all women we cater to are eligible for this program; therefore, grant funds must be used to provide services to those women who need screening but are not eligible to participate.” Earlier this year, the Avon Foundation issued the CBCC a $750,000 challenge grant to support the center’s continued mission of providing breast cancer screening to underserved women in the Washington, D.C., area. Part of this year’s award will allow the CBCC to purchase a new digital mammography machine, which enables them to see more women and provide quicker turnaround for patients. Currently, CBCC can see a maximum of 20 patients each day, but the new digital technology could allow them to screen up to 35 women on a daily basis. “Avon has been a sustaining primary funder of CBCC since we opened in 2004, and we’ve experienced growing pains as most organizations do in this economic climate, but they have been just a true partner,” says Beck. “With their assistance, we are actually switching over to digital mammography this fall. While Avon provided us with the initial challenge grant, the dig- ital mammography manufacturer, [Bedord, Mass.-based] Hologic, actually came in and met it.” “Now, we are going to be able to offer state-of-the-art screening technology to an underinsured population, and now they can receive the same quality of screening services and early detection as individuals with good insurance. This is a huge benefit to the community – obviously very exciting for us – and something we couldn’t have done without support from Avon.” | Bob Stott is a staff writer for rt image. Questions and comments can be directed to bstott@rt-image.com. MammoSpot® “Using MammoSpot® to achieve double spot compression, we’ve significantly decreased blurring. Technologists love it...the images are spectacular.” Gilda Cardenosa, MD MammoSpot 1A and MammoSpot Spot Paddle MammoSpot 1B Benefits of MammoSpot Platforms Simple, cost effective and versatile Use with any equipment including digital Can invert and attach to a screening paddle Without MammoSpot® MammoSpot® With MammoSpot® reveals faint spiculations of a 5mm cancer showing the superiority of dual spot compression MammoSpot Paddle is designed so that no metal Obscures anterior breast Free Trials Available For more information on MammoSpot® Call 1-800-626-4301 or visit www.americanmammographics.com American Mammographics |24| July 20, 2009 A CBCC mammography technologist explains the procedure to a patient. Capital Breast Cancer Center American Mammographics |
