Mobile Mammograms: How The Rose Is Bringing Breast Cancer Screening to Texas Women with CEO Angie Lane

A mammogram takes about 10 minutes. This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I talk with Angie Lane, CEO of The Rose in Houston, about everything it takes to get women to those 10 minutes, and what happens after.

With its Pink Fleet of mobile mammography units, The Rose finds 75 percent of the breast cancers it detects at stage zero or 1A.

The Rose has spent 40 years taking down the barriers to breast cancer screening. Its five mobile units travel across 45 Texas counties and park at places like schools, where a woman can be screened in about 10 minutes.

We also get into what happens after the mammogram: what a callback does and doesn’t mean, and how The Rose’s patient navigators guide women through diagnosis, treatment, and the scary question of cost.

I share my own early-stage diagnosis, found on my first mammogram, and we talk about why your past mammograms matter every time you’re screened.

Chapters

[00:02:30] How two women started The Rose 40 years ago

[00:03:20] The Pink Fleet: mammography on wheels

[00:05:43] Healthcare deserts and insurance deserts

[00:07:35] Mammograms in the school parking lot

[00:09:00] Why 75 percent of cancers found are early stage

[00:12:00] Fear and radiation worries

[00:13:20] What happens after an abnormal mammogram

[00:15:00] Patient navigators and paying for care

[00:17:30] "I don't have time for cancer" and bad actors

[00:21:10] Empower Her Sponsorship

[00:22:50] Why your past mammograms matter

[00:24:37] What other communities can learn

[00:30:00] Closing: Get screened and support The Rose

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