When Tami Beaty first discovered her breast cancer she found it by accident.
Now after her personal struggle with the disease, this breast cancer survivor
is helping provide Mount Hood area women with easy access to cancer
screening through her role coordinating a visit from a mobile mammography
program to Sandy in March.

“Women often think that if what they’re feeling is small that it’s probably
nothing,” said Beaty, the volunteer event coordinator for Sandy’s Seventh-day
Adventist Church. “I think it’s really important for women to understand that
catching stuff early makes a world of difference. Don’t skip your
mammogram.”

The Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) Health Hillsboro Medical
Center Mobile Mammography Program will be offering screenings by
appointment at Sandy’s Seventh Day Adventist Church, 18575 Southeast
Langensand Road, Sandy on Wednesday, March 30.

This will be the first visit to Sandy by the mobile program, which aims to
provide convenient access to mammograms closer to home and work, and
serve as a “fast and effective alternative” for women to receive their regular
screenings.

The OHSU van is the only mobile mammography program in Oregon that
provides 3-D mammography (Digital Breast Tomosynthesis) to communities in
the Mount Hood area.

The van has been recently updated with individual dressing rooms and an
emphasis on personal privacy. All screenings are performed by a female
technologist. OHSU radiologists review the images and results are delivered to
patient’s primary care physicians.

“(The program) is very discrete, very private and very safe. It’s as safe as
going to the hospital,” Beaty said. “Sandy is a growing community. We need

services like this out here for people who don’t have access, and so people
don’t have to drive into town.”

Individuals must be at least 35 years old to be eligible for the screening and
have gone one full year since their last screening. Participants must not be
pregnant or have breast fed in the past three months and should have no
known lumps, pain or discharge.

The program accepts most insurance plans including Medicare, Oregon Health
Plan and programs for low-income individuals including ScreenWise and
Project Access. Kaiser Permanente insurance is not accepted by the program.
The Sandy Seventh-day Adventist Church is planning on hosting the clinic
quarterly for the community.

“If this clinic fills up, we’ll offer it every other month,” Beaty said.
The program is part of a larger public health outreach program on part of the
Sandy church.

The organization is also hosting a vision clinic on March 6. The church will be
offering a diabetes clinic and a depression and anxiety recovery program in
the coming months.

Appointments can be made by contacting Beaty by phone at 503-698-4622.
17 appointments are being offered for the initial visit of the mammography
program with exams currently still available.

For more information on the upcoming event visit
https://www.sandyadventistchurch.org.

More information on the mobile mammography program is available online at

https://tuality.org/hospital-services/breast-health-
services/mobile_mammography/.