Care gap for underserved not easy to fix

SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The problem with the breast healthcare of underserved women with an abnormal mammogram involves transportation, housing and child care, U.S. researchers say.

In an effort to fill a gap in the breast care of underserved women, physicians and nurses at the Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Fla., developed a program to help women get timely care after an abnormal mammogram.

From 2001 through 2006, the Mayo Clinic's Multidisciplinary Breast Clinic offered free diagnosis services to 447 women. Physicians performed 893 procedures and found that 90 percent of the abnormalities detected on initial mammograms were benign; but they also diagnosed 38 cancers, of which 76 percent were invasive carcinoma that needed immediate treatment.

The researchers say arriving at a correct diagnosis was relatively easy, but overcoming the barriers to healthcare that many women have was not.

Frances M. Palmieri, clinical manager of the Multidisciplinary Breast Clinic, says few of the women had telephones, public transportation to the clinic was non-existent and some women were reluctant to come because of a no child care or work.

Many women had no address, or just a temporary one, such as a battered women's shelter, Palmieri says.

The findings are being presented at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium meeting.