Recently, during a career transition, a woman without insurance underwent a screening at a Cleveland Clinic mobile mammogram clinic. Her results were normal, and it encouraged her to get more screenings, including a colonoscopy. There were some abnormal findings from her colonoscopy, and she addressed them.
Now, she works at an agency promoting cancer screenings, especially for women in transition.
Bringing screenings to harder-to-reach people throughout the region — and connecting them with health care — is the mission of Cleveland Clinic’s mobile mammogram unit.
“We know patients who have barriers to care. We can help change that dynamic,” says Ron Lloyd, director of outreach and patient navigation with the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Institute.
Launched in May 2024, the mobile unit is an RV with a state-of-the-art 3D mammography device and changing and waiting areas. Through the mobile unit, patients get their annual mammograms, which start at age 40 — or age 35 if they have a first-degree family history of breast cancer.
Since its launch, the mobile unit has served over 1,260 patients. To address transportation barriers, Cleveland Clinic partners with faith-based organizations, nonprofits, Federally Qualified Health Centers and more to reach patients from Sandusky to Ashtabula and beyond.
Between the Clinic’s mobile mammogram unit and partner units from Youngstown’s Tiffany Breast Care Center and Cleveland Heights’ Women’s Diagnostic Center, there were 109 mobile clinic events in 2024. There are nearly 130 this year — with 20 in the Akron and Canton areas. Those include clinics at Oak St. Health in Akron’s Firestone Park June 3, at Oak St. Health in Canton June 11 and at Asian Services in Action in Akron June 6 and 13.
For those who have financial barriers, Cleveland Clinic can help pay what insurance doesn’t cover with its philanthropy dollars.
If a result is abnormal, a nurse practitioner reaches out. That happened for Medina resident Jessica. She didn’t go to the mobile unit but did a mammogram at a Cleveland Clinic location a week after her 40th birthday in 2023. Her mom and aunt had breast cancer later in their lives, so she got screened quickly. Her mammogram found calcification. A later biopsy was positive for Stage 0 DCIS — ductal carcinoma in situ, which means that there are abnormal cancer cells in the milk ducts. Bearing in mind her family history, she underwent a double mastectomy. The cancer was contained without spreading, so she didn’t need chemotherapy or radiation.
Because Jessica was proactive in getting her screening on schedule, she can be present for her spouse and three kids.
“Please go and do your mammograms when they’re required, so that you can be healthy and there for your family,” she says. “Catching it this early literally saved my life.”
Erin Gulling
Erin Gulling
Erin Gulling
Erin Gulling
