By Jeanne Gustafson
OF THE SPOKANE JOURNAL OF BUSINESS
Inland
Imaging LLC, of Spokane, says it plans to open two new mammography
screening locations this month, one on Spokane’s South Hill and one in
Deer Park, and has decided to establish a nonprofit foundation to
support breast-cancer research and early detection.
The new
mammography locations each cost about $250,000 to launch, including
equipment purchases and remodeling of the premises where the equipment
will be located, says Kathleen Wilson, Inland Imaging’s chief operating
officer. In addition, Inland Imaging will hire about four additional
staff members, including two mammography technologists and two support
staff members, to provide service at the new locations, she says.
The
opening of the two new locations coincides with Inland Imaging’s
planned launch of a foundation, called the Every Woman Can Foundation,
to support regular screening of women, which can lead to early
detection of breast cancer, improving the chances women will beat the
disease.
The company’s board voted recently to form the
foundation, says Steve Duvoisin, the company’s CEO. He says its goals
will be to help raise money for breast-cancer research, to help pay for
mammograms for women who are uninsured or underinsured, and to educate
women about breast cancer screening and the value of early detection of
the disease.
The American Cancer Society says breast cancer is
the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women, after lung cancer,
and it estimates 40,170 women will die from breast cancer this year. It
says that mammography could detect between 80 percent and 90 percent of
breast tumors in women who have no symptoms.
On Spokane’s South
Hill, Inland Imaging has leased about 600 square feet of space inside
the Inland Aesthetic Institute, which opened recently, for one of the
two new mammography screening locations. The facility is at 1923 S.
Grand, across the street from Manito Park. Inland Imaging will share
Inland Aesthetic’s waiting room and reception area, but will have a
separate space for its mammography screening room and technologists’
area.
Wilson says the center will have a different feeling than
a typical mammography screening location. “It’s a spa-like atmosphere,
a different atmosphere than we’ve had,” which Inland Imaging hopes will
be both relaxing and convenient for patients, she says.
In the
second new location, Inland Imaging is adding breast screening
equipment to its Deer Park facility at 702 S. Park Ave. there, where it
has been offering magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography
scans for about two years.
Altogether, Inland Imaging projects
it will perform about 60,000 mammograms this year, or about 8 percent
more than in 2008, Wilson says.
In large part, the increase will
occur due to greater efforts to educate women about the importance of
breast cancer screening and to make the tests more easily accessible,
Wilson says. In a survey last year of Spokane-area women, Inland
Imaging found that only 50 percent of women over 40 years of age here
have regular screening mammograms. The survey found that the major
barriers to screening are that women lack time and have financial
difficulty. Inland has implemented a number of marketing initiatives,
including social networking online and hosting events for women, to
increase awareness of the value of screening.
Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.