Buffalo, N.Y.-based Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is taking a new approach to cancer care by providing low-dose CT-scans in the back of a trailer, Buffalo News reported Feb. 26.
The $4 million mobile cancer screening unit is the size of a tractor-trailer and has been dubbed "Eddy: Early Detection Driven to You." It provides lung screenings to underserved and high-risk communities. The trailer houses a low-dose CT screening machine and is staffed by a registered nurse, physician assistant and CT technologist.
Patients only spend 20 minutes receiving a scan and education. The CT scans are sent to Roswell Park's hospital to be analyzed. Within a week, Eddy staff calls the patient with results and can schedule follow-ups as needed. Since late January, Eddy has screened nearly 300 Western New Yorkers.
"We wanted this lifesaving cancer screening to be easier, more accessible and equitable," Roswell President and CEO Candace Johnson said in the report. "We want everyone who should be screened to get screened. We have a tremendous opportunity here to save a lot of lives."
Eddy hopes to close screen disparities and reduce cancer's burden on urban, rural and minority communities, according to the report.