Sonoma Valley Hospital Purchases State-Of-The-Art 3-D Mammography System

August 31, 2017

Sonoma Valley Hospital has announced that it will soon offer a 3-D Mammography service to the community. The hospital reports that it has ordered a state-of-the-art
3-D Hologic mammography system and is currently constructing a new mammography center within the hospital to accommodate the suite of equipment, which will open in January 2018.

The new system has been provided to the hospital through the generosity of community members and private foundations, who donated $535,000 for its purchase and installation through a campaign organized by the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation, according to Dave Pier, Foundation Executive Director.

“Once again, our community has stepped up to support its hospital and ensure we have the latest and best technology,” said Pier. He noted that in the past year, donors also enabled the purchase of a state-of-the-art Stryker surgery system for the hospital’s Surgery Center.

3-D mammography, also known as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), is a FDA-approved process that utilizes the newest technology to take multiple images that create a 3-D image of the breast, which allows for more careful examination of breast tissue. This makes it easier to detect breast cancer and avoid false positives compared with traditional mammography, which obtains just a single 2-D image.

SVH has purchased a Hologic Selenia Dimension mammography suite which uses advanced technology found in many of the country’s leading cancer hospitals. According to the manufacturer, the technology results in a 41 percent increase in invasive cancer detection and a 40 percent reduction in false positives compared with 2-D technology. This reduces the unnecessary anxiety of call backs resulting from false positives.

When the installation of the new 3-D mammography suite is completed, the hospital will move mammography back into the hospital from the existing Women’s Health Center on Perkins St.

“The hospital has struggled to keep women’s health services viable and this is the first of several steps we are taking to improve and expand our services for women,” said CEO Kelly Mather. “We now have two female OB/GYNs using our hospital and a new female breast surgeon is joining us this fall.”

Mather noted that there are financial reasons to move mammography back into the hospital. “The new mammography suite requires considerable build-out costs, and it was more efficient to do that within the hospital where women have access to other services. We see it as a first step in our efforts to create a more patient-centered and efficient imaging center in the coming years.”