Northern Light Health celebrates one year of mobile mammography

Date: 04/10/2025

The Northern Light Health mobile mammography team recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of screening the first patient on Maine’s only mobile mammography unit.

The first screening was completed on April 11, 2024, at Northern Light CA Dean Hospital. Since then, the unit has traveled 6,184 miles to provide mammograms to 314 patients in Greenville, Jackman, Monson, Corinth, Milo, and Unity. Of those screened, three quarters live in Piscataquis County, and one quarter live in other parts of Maine. Twenty-four patients were referred for additional screening due to the findings of the exam.

“Our goal is to eliminate as many barriers to screening as possible, because we know that timely mammograms save lives. Transportation, work responsibilities, childcare, and other factors prevent women from staying on schedule with their screenings. An added barrier is distance—many of our rural communities are many miles from a hospital that offers mammograms,” says Kacy Wakefield, Community Women’s Health Navigator, CA Dean and Mayo Hospitals.

The mobile unit has increased access to screening in rural communities like Jackman, which is more than an hour’s drive from the nearest hospital. Two screening events have been held at Penobscot Community Health Care’s Jackman Community Health Center, and more are planned for 2025.

A year into launching the service, the mammography team continues to make improvements to ensure screening is as convenient as possible. After finding that nearly one in five women were unable to keep their appointments, the team began offering walk-in mammograms at all screening events.

“We’re excited to offer walk-in mammograms because it means that more women will have an opportunity to be screened. It’s easy to put off scheduling an appointment, and sometimes, people run behind schedule or life gets in the way. Walk-in screening removes those barriers,” adds Wakefield.

While the service has reached hundreds of women, demand for mammography in rural communities continues to be high. More than 600 CA Dean and Mayo Hospital patients are overdue for mammograms, and that is just in the Maine Highlands—around the state, thousands of women are behind on screening. In response, Northern Light Health is bringing mobile mammography to more locations in 2025, including communities in Southern Maine. 

“The mammography unit is based at CA Dean Hospital, but we are open to traveling to every region of Maine where there’s a need,” adds Wakefield.

Please click here to inquire about a screening event in your community or to view the upcoming schedule.