Healthcarewomen’s health

WHITE MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTERCASE STUDY: WOMEN’S HEALTH

THE CHALLENGE: Encouraging Annual Mammography Screenings

At White Memorial Medical Center (WMMC), the Women’s Care group offers patients a warm, supportive atmosphere along with a friendly, experienced staff. However, the clinical team faces an ongoing challenge: Motivating women in this economically disadvantaged east Los Angeles community to show up for their annual mammography screenings.

“In women’s health, it’s very important to have your patients come regularly because the screening is the essential aspect of treating the disease and optimizing outcomes,” said Samantha Kaura, M.D., radiologist and attending physician, Adventist Health White Memorial.

More than 40,600 women in the U.S. are expected to die from breast cancer this year alone, according to the American Cancer Society. Yet, when breast cancer is caught early, the odds for effective treatment and survival greatly increase. Even so, it’s not always easy to ensure that women get their annual exam.

“Building trust with the community is a very critical part of what we do,” said Eva Meyers, NP, medical oncology, Adventist Health White Memorial. “Women sometimes are fearful, and so they wait until the last minute.”

Fear of the mammography exam is a big factor. Add to that the fact that many women in this financially challenged community go to work as well as take care of families. That leaves them with little time to tend to their own health.

With these factors in mind, WMMC goes to great lengths to encourage women to comply with screenings. The imaging center offers flexible appointment times to accommodate diverse schedules. There is a large Spanish speaking staff to ensure effective communication and education. And, White Memorial has invested in Fujifilm’s ASPIRE Cristalle, a leading edge full-field digital mammography system.

Simply put, ASPIRE Cristalle is proving to be a technology that is changing lives at WMMC. It delivers high-quality images that give clinicians diagnostic confidence—while offering patients the kind of comfort that helps quell anxieties and keeps them coming back.

THE SOLUTION: Exceptional Images, Ef�ciency, Comfort

The WMMC team performs approximately 60 screening and diagnostic mammography exams a day. With that kind of volume, getting a high-qual-ity, usable image the first time is critically important.

“Image quality is the number one most important factor in deciding what equipment we want to buy because it has the greatest impact on patient care,” said Dr. Kaura. With the ASPIRE Cristalle, “we get the exam right the first time” and that means earlier detection of cancers and fewer callbacks for patients with a negative benign result.

With its integrated features, the ASPIRE Cristalle is also easy to

use—making for more efficient exams and allowing technologists to keep pace with volume and stay on schedule.

But at WMMC, one of the biggest benefits of ASPIRE Cristalle is that patients respond so positively to the technology.

“A lot of people in this community fear the medical profession. So getting them to the first stage and getting them screened is often a hardship. But once they experience technology like the Fujifilm ASPIRE [Cristalle], they realize it’s not as bad as they thought,” said Sheri Marquez, M.D., radiation oncologist, Adventist Health White Memorial.

The ASPIRE Cristalle features a unique patient comfort paddle, which Dr. Kaura says makes a big difference for many women and induces compliance. “Some patients are sensitive to the compression during the mammography, but the ASPIRE [Cristalle] has new technology with a flexible paddle that adjusts the compression to different parts of the breast, which increases patient comfort.”

Being more comfortable and less anxious makes it a lot easier for a woman to sign up for her routine screening every year.

RESULTS & NEXT STEPS: Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Integration Underway

For even more clinical confidence, WMMC plans to upgrade its ASPIRE Cristalle with digital breast tomosynthesis technology. In the near future, the group will perform all diagnostic mammography exams as well as stereotatic biopsies using tomosynthesis.

“Tomosynthesis provides improved accuracy in diagnosing breast cancer for all patients, whether they have less dense breasts as well as patients who have dense breast tissue,” said Dr. Kaura. “Research studies show that tomosynthesis has better diagnostic accuracy in detecting breast cancers, which leads to earlier diagnosis and treatment.”

What’s more, 3D or tomosynthesis technology can better discern normal tissue from overlapping tissue versus traditional mammography. This, in turn, can help to further reduce callbacks, which cause unnecessary anxiety for patients.

“Our partnership with Fujifilm is really important. It’s an essential part of our imaging center at White Memorial,” said Dr. Kaura.

Better compliance—coupled with superior image quality—is enabling clinicians to catch more breast cancers sooner, which is essential to early treatment and optimizing results.

“One by one, person by person, we’re changing lives here at White Memorial,” said Dr. Marquez. “It’s hard to understand how technology can translate into improvements for humanity, but it does. We’re bringing a better level of care, a better understanding among the community and that’s translating into better health.”

White Memorial Medical Center: Women’s Health

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