Today’s mammograms in Hazen will begin not when a technician starts the scans but when Kimberly Enoch turns the ignition.

 

Enoch is the program manager, grant writer, chief hand holder and, for now at least, driver for UAMS’s new MammoVan program. It’s a mobile mammography machine installed on a souped up recreational vehicle that provides scans in the 26 Arkansas counties where FDA-approved services aren’t available at a local hospital or clinic.

 

The program, which serves women whose incomes place them at 200 percent or less above the poverty line, is being funded by numerous grants from organizations and individuals, the largest provider being the Arkansas Cancer Coalition through the Department of Health. It cost “over a million bucks just to get us started out the driveway,” Enoch said.

 

But for women like Rachel Massingale of Ward, it could be a lifesaver. Massingale, 44, said she has a “pretty good family history” involving her mother and father’s sister, who both beat the disease, and her mother’s sister, who died from lung cancer after having breast cancer. A stay-at-home mother of two, she makes sure to get a yearly mammogram. “It’s OK. … It’s not fun, but it’s not horrible,” she said.

 

For Phyllis Crain of Hickory Plains, this is only her second mammogram at age 53, and despite the fact that her husband died from cancer, she said she probably wouldn’t have taken advantage of today’s services if it weren’t provided at no cost. Afterwards, she joked that she “wasn’t nervous. But I’m nervous what the outcome’s going to be.”

 

Since making their first trip together to Lonoke County February 24, the team aboard the MammoVan had screened 111 women prior to going to Hazen April 7. Twelve of the women needed additional views, and two were possible cancer patients who will be navigated through whatever remaining medical treatments are necessary. Grant funds are available not only for the screenings but also to pay for the cost of treatments all the way to completion.

 

According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 1,820 women in Arkansas learned they had breast cancer in 2009, and 410 died of the disease.

 

Programs like the MammoVan target the underserved, including minorities and women who are uninsured or underinsured. Many have had limited contact with the medical system and, if problems are found, will need help going from point A to point B and beyond. Many face barriers to getting good primary and preventive care, such as a lack of transportation or limited access to child care.

 

“You’re going into the community instead of telling them to come to UAMS,” said Shannon Langhorn, a project analyst and data coordinator for UAMS’ cancer outreach program. She added, “By us going out, we’re helping to break some of those barriers that, otherwise, they wouldn’t receive those treatments.”

 

Janice Davis from Hazen is a typical example. Just to make it to today’s MammoVan, she had to drop off her grandson, one of two grandchildren she watches each day, at her own mother’s, and then she’ll be off to her job baking pizzas at a local restaurant.

 

Despite those challenges, she makes getting a mammogram a priority. She previously had undergone four yearly scans, usually through another donor program in Searcy. “Actually, it’s very easy,” she said. “You just stand there and do what they say, and they take a picture and (you) go home.”

 

The MammoVan features a state-of-the-art digital mammography machine, an interview station, and a waiting area with a flat-screen television and wi-fi capabilities. The machine is calibrated and checked after the van arrives at its temporary location for the day.

 

It’s an improvement over the hospital’s previous mobile modular program, offered from 2003-07, which featured a less advanced analog mammography machine that had to be rolled on and off the van and set up at its location. “This way is much, much easier,” Enoch said. “You’re not taking a 300-pound (piece of) equipment on and off of a van. Everything is here, and the patients just get on.”

 

Prior to its arrival, the program blankets a community with fliers and other advertisements and gets help from local providers in spreading the word. Shakia Jackson prescreens callers to make sure they qualify, though if they don’t she said the hospital will find a way to get them the services. Moreover, preregistration allows the program to obtain women’s previous mammograms to compare with the new scans.

 

Once a community reaches 30 appointments – and it usually doesn’t take long – a day is set for screenings, and there are relatively few no-shows. This was the first of two days the MammoVan was to remain in Hazen, and three days were scheduled elsewhere for the next week. “I can book up really one county in a day or two,” Jackson said.

 

Enoch parks the MammoVan at a local health or community center and the team goes to work. Patients arrive early for their appointments, and though they often are nervous about the process, Langhorn said they are grateful to receive the services. This day, they are asked to donate saliva for research purposes – a program organizers are calling “Spit for the Cure.”

 

Langhorn said that, if it’s successful, it’s foreseeable that other mobile testing devices could address other health issues. For now, they expect to continue providing the service long after the current grants expire. “If our numbers continue to be like they are now, funding will be there,” she said.