Haines women seeking mammograms no longer need to wait for twice-yearly visits from the mobile mammography van. Since October, the Haines Health Center has owned a mammography machine and offers monthly screenings.

With the help of a recent grant, the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium purchased three mammogram machines for clinics in Haines, Wrangell and Klawock. Haines was selected due to its location and demand.

All the slots for the monthly clinics have been filled, but clinic administrator Stephanie Pattison said this week not enough local women know about the new machine. "Someone stopped me on the street to ask when the mobile mammogram was coming," she said.

Mammographer Amy Marten, who works at SEARHC in Sitka, says that the new machine, a 3D Hologic Mammographic Unit, represents the industry's "gold standard."

Older, two-dimensional mammogram machines can take only two pictures, from the front and side, but 3D mammography – also called digital breast tomosynthesis – combines pictures from many angles. It can detect more cancers at earlier stages and is especially useful for dense tissue and breast implants. Pattison said a 3D mammogram feels the same as a 2D mammogram. "It's uncomfortable," she said, "but it doesn't hurt. It's over in five minutes."

The new machine means that four times as many women in Haines will be able to receive mammograms in a given year. The mobile clinic provided 140 mammograms each year, but the new machine can accommodate 40 appointments per monthly clinic.

"It's just better service for the community," Marten said, adding that the mammogram van, which drove down from Fairbanks, broke down a few times. The mobile clinic was limited to first-round screening mammograms; anything unusual on the scan would require a follow-up visit to Juneau or Sitka.

Now, further diagnostic procedures can happen on the spot because the Juneau-based mammographer who runs the monthly clinics on Haines' new machine is scheduled to come with an ultrasound technician who can perform further testing.

Marten and Pam Sloper – who directs Haines's WISEWOMAN program – agree that this is a big step forward.

Mammograms are covered by most insurance plans, including Medicare, Medicaid, and SEARHC's WISEWOMAN Women's Health program, a service for income-eligible women without insurance. The program also was responsible for bringing the mobile mammography clinic to towns in Southeast Alaska.

Sloper said SEARHC adheres to eligibility guidelines set by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, which recommends a mammogram once every two years beginning at age 50.

Recommendations vary, however; other groups, such as the American Cancer Society, advise yearly mammograms beginning at age 40. Because risk factors vary from one person to the next, Sloper said women should always seek recommendations from their doctors.

A SEARHC bulletin in 2017 listed breast cancer as the second leading cause of cancer death in Alaskan women after lung cancer.