For most women, scheduling a mammogram is a minor inconvenience. But for women with physical disabilities, an annual breast cancer screening can be a challenging, even frustrating, event.
Breast Health for Women with Physical Disabilities, a program of Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia's Marion-Louise Saltzman Women's Center, helps women overcome the barriers to preventive breast care.
With a focus on individualized attention, the program offers one-on-one education, counseling and the use of mammography chairs designed to make screenings accessible and comfortable for women with mobility limitations.
The Marion-Louise Saltzman Women's Center offers the program on specific days and times of the week when breast care specialists can focus 100 percent of their time and resources on each patient. By allotting extra time, breast care providers can help patients with special needs such as transferring from a wheelchair into the mammography chair, getting undressed and dressed and learning breast self-examination techniques.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the program is its mammography chairs.
Usually while having a mammogram, women must stand in a still position so that the mammography equipment can take two X-rays of each breast. If a woman is unable to be positioned correctly, the X-rays may not be accurate. The mammography chairs at the Marion-Louise Saltzman Women's Center help to lift, lower or lay the patient down during her examination and screening.
The program is open to women with disabilities throughout the Philadelphia region. To schedule an appointment, call 215-951-TEST.