By Adding GE Healthcare’s New Senographe® Essential System, Digital Mammography Arrives at FMC.
This year in America, more than 184,450 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Last week, Franklin Medical Center advanced the fight against this pervasive disease by acquiring a new cutting edge digital mammography system for its patients.
This system, a GE Healthcare Senographe 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 can be extremely helpful for precision imaging of patients with diverse shapes and sizes.
“This is new and powerful technology for the detection and fight against breast cancer,” says Julie Collins, FMC Director of Radiology. “This system will 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.”
According to the Center for Disease Control, Louisiana has one of the highest death rates in the entire nation for breast cancer . Mammograms are among the best early detection methods, 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.
“This new digital technology will provide both accuracy and increased ease of use for our patients,” says April Winborne, Director of Nursing. “Providing outstanding diagnostic equipment for patients is a vital step to good preventive health, and one we take very seriously.”
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. And if a second opinion is needed, the image can be sent electronically to a consulting physician virtually instantaneously.
The process for installing the system is underway. Be sure to check back for updates on our progress in implementing this critically needed service for our community.
