Published: February 11, 2010 01:43 pm      

Gordon Hospital adds digital mammography

CALHOUN —�This year in America, more than 184,450 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Today, Gordon Hospital advanced the fight against this disease by installing a new cutting edge mammography system for its patients.

This system, a GE Healthcare Senographe Essential Digital Mammography system, provides physicians with clear and precise all-digital images, rather than images on X-ray film. What’s more, the system provides the largest field of view currently available, which is extremely helpful for precision imaging of patients with diverse breast shapes and sizes. In addition, it reduces the radiation dose to these patients because it eliminates the need to take multiple images, a drawback to standard digital machines.

“This is new and powerful technology for the detection and fight against breast cancer,” says Raina Sanford, director of radiology at Gordon Hospital. “Digital systems such as the new Senographe Essential allow us to offer our patients state-of-the-art mammograms that are fast and easy. And it gives our referring physicians accurate images to use in diagnosis.”

There are many advantages to a digital system. The images are clear and easy to read, and it offers an excellent view of the breast, especially near the skin line, chest wall and in women with diverse breast tissue types.

The digital image is ready to read within 10 seconds—there is no longer a wait for films to be developed to be sure the images are usable. Digital mammograms take as little as half the time of film.

“This new technology will provide both accuracy and increased ease of use for our patients,” says Sanford. “Providing outstanding diagnostic equipment for patients is a vital step to good preventive health, and one we take very seriously.”

Mammograms are among the best early detection methods against breast cancer, yet 13 million U.S. women 40 years of age or older have never had a mammogram, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. Current research indicates that digital mammography improves detection and decreases the need for additional studies in women under the age of 50.

The addition of digital mammography broadens an already comprehensive women’s service line offered by Gordon. Gordon Hospital is the only hospital in Northwest Georgia to be named a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology and the first hospital to offer breast MRI as a diagnostic tool. The hospital and its patients also benefit from having on staff a radiologist who has completed Fellowship training in Women’s Imaging.

“We are truly excited about the capabilities of this new digital equipment and are thrilled that patients in Gordon County will no longer have to travel out of town to have a digital mammogram,” says Sanford. “Here at Gordon Hospital, we are always looking for ways to continually improve the care that we provide to our patients and keeping our technology up-to-date is one way of doing that. In the last several years, our program has grown and we’ve been able to add in addition to digital mammography, the high-definition MRI and digital computer aided evaluation of our mammograms essentially acting as a backup set of eyes for the physician When you look at all we offer women in this area, it is the most comprehensive breast health program available.”