SMH to unveil digital mammography suite Wednesday

Posted May 28, 2012

Stevenson Memorial Hospital (SMH) will mark the public introduction of its new Digital Mammography Suite with a ribbon cutting and unit tours on Wednesday, May 30 starting 2:00 pm.

A media advisory sent out this morning invites local residents to join hospital staff, physicians, and volunteers at the ceremony to learn more about the new leading edge technology and how it provides more detailed images and more accurate diagnoses.

"It is important that local residents have access to diagnostic services, such as CT Scans and digital mammography, in their own community,Ó according to Annette Jones, SMH President and CEO, in the press release announcing the event. "This has been made possible thanks to the generosity of our community, the Stevenson Memorial Hospital Foundation, and our many community partners. It also speaks to the highly skilled people we have working at Stevenson, for the provision of these services would not be possible without their knowledge and commitment to the delivery of safe, quality care."

The SMH Foundation raised about$1.3 million between December, 2009 and November 2011 through its successful, It's Crystal Clear Campaign, to support the hospital's transition to digital mammography services in Alliston. Diagnostic Imaging Dept. was renovated to accommodate the new equipment which now takes and stores electronic pictures of the breast. Digital images can be viewed on a monitor and adjusted for brighter, sharper image.

Wednesday's event will feature guest speaker Gord Mawdsley who has been working in imaging physics since 1979, on the improvement of the detection of Breast cancer. He is a Fellow of the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine, with specialty certification in Mammographic Physics and currently works in the Imaging Research group at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre. Mr. Mawdsley currently supervises a group that provides physics consultation and quality control assistance to the 168 sites of the Ontario Breast Screening Program, and is responsible for the Stevenson Memorial Hospital site.

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