Sutter Health Expands AI-Enhanced Mobile Mammography to Improve Breast Cancer Detection

The mobile unit addresses challenges such as transportation, scheduling, and limited access to traditional clinics, particularly for underserved populations.

Sutter Health has launched an AI-enhanced mobile mammography program aimed at improving early breast cancer detection and access to care.

The initiative integrates advanced artificial intelligence into the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center’s 40-foot mobile mammography van, providing 3D mammography services to women in California’s East Bay and surrounding regions.

The mobile unit addresses challenges such as transportation, scheduling, and limited access to traditional clinics, particularly for underserved populations. Sutter Health collaborated with Ferrum Health to ensure secure and efficient deployment of the AI tool across its mobile and stationary imaging sites.

The Ferrum Health platform standardizes care and delivers actionable insights to clinicians, supporting improved diagnostic performance. Initial results from Sutter Health’s 60+ imaging sites indicate measurable improvements in breast cancer screening outcomes. Detection rates increased from 4.8 to more than 6.0 per 1,000 screenings, while false positives decreased, reducing unnecessary follow-up visits and procedures.

The AI system also enabled targeted risk identification, flagging 12% of women as high-risk and 3% as extremely high-risk, facilitating earlier intervention. Radiologist workflow benefited as well, with AI showing no marks in 42% of studies, allowing for more efficient reading and decision-making.

“By expanding access and investing in innovation, we’re redefining cancer care from prevention to survivorship, today and for the future,” said Dr. Nitin Rohatgi, medical oncologist and chair of the Breast Cancer Programs of Oncology Distinction at Sutter Health.

The program is part of Sutter Health’s broader effort to integrate AI-driven breast health diagnostics across its system, aiming to support vulnerable populations and enhance early detection of breast cancer.

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