A new, state-of-the-art Senographe Pristina 3D mammography machine with tomosynthesis is the most recent addition to the Eleanor and Ethel Leh Women’s Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown. Designed by women, for women, this new equipment offers a more comfortable mammogram experience, with adjustments made for better positioning and compression, and improved image quality. Proper positioning and better image quality reduce the need for repeat scans.
The Leh Women’s Center team sees nearly 500 patients a month for screening and diagnostic mammograms. This past January, the hospital decided to upgrade the Leh Women’s Center’s nine-year-old machine. The new Senographe Pristina was installed in early April and went online with its first patients undergoing mammography on April 12.
“We are excited about the upgrade of our mammography machine,” said Dennis Welsh, Vice President, Rural Health Transformation, and Executive Director, UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown. “We are up-and-running with a brand-new unit, operated by the same highly skilled, compassionate and experienced staff you have trusted all along.”
UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown’s leadership and Leh Women’s Center mammography team members held a pink ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the addition of the new machine.
“We are offering patients an exam that is more comfortable and accurate, and the patient can be confident in their results,” said Penny Olivi, Director, Radiology Services, UM Shore Regional Health. “I am excited we can offer this new, state-of-the-art machine to our Leh Women’s Center patients and our Kent County community.”
Photo: From left, Lara Wilson, Director, Rural Health Care Transformation at UM Shore Medical Center Chestertown; mammography technologists Jordan Boone, RT(R)(M), and Abby Spence, RT(R)(M); Lead Mammography Technologist Connie Branham, RT(R)(M), CN-BI; mammography technologist Susan Herr, RT(R)(M); Penny Olivi, MBA, RT, CRA, FAHRA, Director, Imaging Services, UM Shore Regional Health; and Dennis Welsh, Vice President, Rural Health Transformation, and Executive Director, UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown.
Screening mammograms are a necessary preventive measure in maintaining breast health. A mammogram screening is appropriate for all who are considered high risk due to family history of breast cancer or other factors, and any patient over age 40. Using an X-ray to take pictures of the breast, the screening is used to detect the presence of breast cancer, even in those patients who have no sign or symptom of the disease. Getting a routine breast exam and annual screening mammogram can help detect cancer early, improving the chance it can be treated successfully.
Leh Women’s Center Lead Mammography TechnologistConnie Branham, RT (R) (M), CN-BI said it was early detection that caught her own breast cancer in 2020.
“The Leh Women’s Center has paved the way in cutting-edge mammography technology on the Eastern Shore,” Branham said. “My cancer was found early thanks to mammography. Early detection is key. I am also fortunate in that my entire breast cancer team is all within Shore Regional Health.”
Branham said she and her entire team have advanced certification in mammography. Branham also has additional certification in Breast Imaging Patient Navigation from the National Consortium of Breast Centers.
In 2013, the Leh Women’s Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown was the first UM Shore Regional Health facility to begin offering 3D mammography technology to patients. Today, all UM Shore Regional Health diagnostic centers have 3D mammography technology.
To schedule a mammogram at the Eleanor and Ethel Leh Women’s Center in Chestertown, patients should contact their primary care physician or women’s health physician for a screening mammogram order and then call Central Scheduling at 443-225-7474 to schedule an appointment. UM SRH customer service representatives are trained to assist patients in finding the best location to fit their medical imaging needs, so they can take care of all of their imaging orders, close to home, in as few visits as possible.
Information regarding our other Diagnostic and Imaging locations is also available by visiting umshoreregional.org.
About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health
As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,200 employees, medical staff, board members and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.
About the University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.
Cl Ra says
Fabulous! It’s bonkers to me how little locals know about our fabulous local hospital and all of the services it provides, the renovations and additions made. If you value what having a local hospital adds to the community, then support it by using it. Go there, first, instead of to all of its detractors/competitors.