October Breast Health Awareness Month -- Week 4

In June 2013, the Supreme Court struck a blow to the company that had had the sole ability in the U.S. to provide diagnostic testing for the BRCA1 and BRCA1 genes – testing that carried a $3,340 price tag. The Court determined that isolated human genes cannot be patented. The challenge to the company’s patents was brought by scientists, researchers and patients who believed that the patents stood in the way of further research on the genes as well as limited the availability of testing. That testing is now available … and at a lower cost.

One barrier down.

But so many barriers to preventing and ultimately curing breast cancer remain.

In Houston – of the women over age 40 – only 50% are getting their annual mammograms. For some, the issue is cost. Women are twice as likely to be covered as dependents – becoming more vulnerable to losing their insurance, or they still may be uninsured.  The Kaiser Family Foundation has done studies that reveal women delay their own health care for other reasons as well -- including lack of transportation and limited time off from work.

The Rose has made it our business throughout our 27 years of history to take on each of these barriers. We have a model whereby three insured women can help cover the cost of the uninsured woman. Community support by way of donations and sponsorships also play a tremendous role. We have Patient Navigators who help our diagnosed patients find treatment nearby and when necessary provide assistance with transportation. And our mobile fleet is growing so that we can take care directly to the workplace. In a room as small as 10 by 10, our staff can set up and start providing mammograms on site.

Yet … women still have to make the first step and make that appointment.

For many years The Rose has utilized mobile mammography traveling to local clinics to help women  get low-cost mammograms. Appointments were scheduled, yet African American women still did not come. To discover why, the Breast Health Collaborative of Texas and St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities (now Episcopal Health Charities) research team along with female leaders in the African American community implemented a study. They found that a woman often did not come because she:

•         Didn’t want to know/had a fear of finding cancer

•         Never had a mammogram before and didn’t know what to expect

•         Feared the exposure to radiation

•         Had been told mammograms are extremely painful

For that reason, Gloria Robinson now focuses on intervention. Gloria is the Community Health Worker, now employed by BHCT, who worked with patients of The Rose, counseling them by phone, addressing each of their concerns. In 2013, the data showed that this method of one-on-one communication has the ability to reduce the no-show rate for African American women from 60% to 16.7%.  Plans are already underway, when funding comes through, to continue interventions with expanded communities.

One more barrier … slowly coming down.

Dorothy Gibbons, Co-Founder and CEO of The Rose