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M Health Fairview now offers mobile mammography services

The health system is putting breast cancer screening equipment on the road to reach underserved neighborhoods.

ST PAUL, Minn. — Doctors say women should get a mammogram every two years after turning 50 years old, as age is one of the biggest risk factors for breast cancer. Other risk factors range from family history to physical activity, and some women will get breast cancer even without any known risk factors, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But just because you should get them frequently doesn't mean they're always accessible or available. That's why M Health Fairview is putting the screening equipment on the road and bringing them to neighborhoods that need them most. 

Lorraine Cooper has been coming to M Health Fairview's Phalen Village clinic for several years. 

"It's a good clinic. They care. They really care," Cooper said. "I wouldn't go nowhere else. I like the people here."

While she raves about it, the day-to-day doctor's office doesn't offer breast cancer screenings. Many primary care clinics don't.

That's why M Health Fairview started using three mobile trucks to bring mammography services to clinics without such services on site. Senior clinic manager Chelsea McGuire grew up in St. Paul's historically underserved Phalen Village neighborhood and says the initiative is meant to reduce health disparities for BIPOC patients.

"We know that if you don't have to travel far - if you don't have to make another trip somewhere else - you're more likely to be successful in making that appointment and getting that service done," McGuire said.

Appointments are required. Exams are scheduled for about 15 minutes each but may take additional time.

"We have language services here," McGuire explained. "So sometimes when we have patients, especially who are non-English speaking, we do require that interpreter to be here and be able to help through that entire appointment."

M Health Fairview reports, that since launching the initiative in late 2022, more than 60 women of color have been screened for breast cancer because of the trucks. Wednesday was the third time one of them has visited the Phalen Village location. Results should be available by the end of the week.

"We don't ever want to hear that there is something that we need to have a conversation [about], but because a patient was screened at our site we were able to go forward with a diagnostic screen," McGuire said.

As for Cooper, she says she'd been screened elsewhere in previous years but Wednesday's mammogram was the first she'd received from her home clinic.

"We're Black and we're known to have high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes … strokes. You know, we Black women - we could have anything going on in our body. We are the ones that carry stuff and never knew about it," Cooper said.  "That's why you need to have yourself checked down there and up here."

"Just because it don't hurt, don't mean it ain't there."

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and National Mammography Day is every third Friday of October. That's coming up in just a couple of days.

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