You can’t miss the “Mammovan.” The large van is dressed in signature blue and pink colors and parked outside 268 West 145th St. in Harlem.
Mount Sinai’s Mobile Mammography Program has been in service for more than 1,200 days, and finding a vacant parking spot for it was the smallest of the missions it was there to accomplish, assured Alexander Lewis, the program’s manager.
The harder part is getting local women to know that they can visit the Mammovan and receive a potentially life-saving screening to detect possible breast cancer.
Funded through a state initiative, the mobile unit has been bringing street-level breast imaging to New York residents since 2018. The “state-of-the-art, updated, 100% compliant” equipment embedded within the ambulatory clinic is breaking down barriers to preventative healthcare, especially for underserved communities.
In many cases, insurance is not a prerequisite for qualification. “When it pertains to communities where there’s a large presence of minorities or undocumented individuals, we have seen an increase in patient turnout,” said Lewis.
“We really need to go where the patients are and not just always expect them to come to the medical center,” echoed Dr. Jessie Fields, a primary care doctor at an office located on West 147th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.
Fields’ practice is among the many local institutions partnering with Mount Sinai to disseminate information about an event within the relevant population.
“Close to the community,” she takes a proactive approach to encouraging appointments. “One of the things I do is I don’t just talk to patients in my office. I go to churches, health fairs, screenings. I have spoken many times at events.”
Describing her practice as “very diverse,” Fields has observed firsthand the disparities in breast cancer outcomes, noting that mortality rates are much higher for Black and Hispanic women.
“The availability in terms of insurance and having access to good quality medical care early, there’s a discrepancy in that,” she said. “So this van is just really tremendously valuable.”
But the exceptionality of mobile mammography doesn’t stop at access. Each screening is powered by innovation that reimagines what equitable prophylaxis can look like.
“One hundred percent of all mammograms done in the Sinai system are evaluated by artificial intelligence at no cost to the patient,” said Dr. Laurie Margolies, vice chair for breast imaging at the Mount Sinai Health System. The combination of specialist expertise and AI bolsters diagnostic confidence in a procedure already known to save lives.
“Studies have shown that most people who die from breast cancer are not the people who have chosen to get screened,” Margolies said.
The infrastructure is in place—parked at the curb, its doors wide open.
“It’s here, right in the community,” Fields said. Now, “we need to get more information out.”
To learn when the Mammovan will be in your area and make an appointment, visit events.mountsinaihealth.org or call 844-396-2666.
