Telemedicine mammography effective

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Indian women who live in North Dakota and South Dakota are getting their mammograms read in Ann Arbor, Mich., without ever leaving the reservation.

University of Michigan radiologists sought to improve delivery of traditional mobile mammography, in which a large truck equipped with mammography machines travels to various sites. Using digital mammography instead of films and adding satellite capability, they found the digital mammograms could be beamed to radiologists who could read them in Ann Arbor.

"Mobile mammography is a critical way for Native American women to get a mammogram, but what happens when a woman needs to be called back for more images?" asks Dr. Marilyn Roubidoux of the University of Michigan Medical School.

"By transmitting the mammograms by satellite, a radiologist could read them on the spot and three-quarters of the women who needed more images had those done immediately or within fewer than three days."

Roubidoux presented the findings of the pilot program at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.