Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Sampson Regional Medical Center Foundation and all those who support it annual gala and golf tournament each year, life has been made a little easier for patients seeking state-of-the-art care in local facilities. This year is no different, as the Foundation puts its efforts into raising money for a digital mammography unit.

On Saturday, Nov. 6, at the Sampson Agri-Exposition Center, the Foundation will host its fourth annual gala, with proceeds for the event specifically designed to help in the fight for early detection of breast cancer.

“Each year we try and do something different,” said Brenda Warren, executive director for the SRMC Foundation. “I had talked to some women and discovered that they needed digital mammography, but had to go out of town to get it. When we were talking about what our project was going to be for the gala, it just seemed to fit. We have all been affected by breast cancer in some way or other, and with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it was perfect timing.”

Wade Wright, radiology and nuclear medicine director at Sampson Regional, said digital mammography has become the “standard of care” for mammograms.

“With this machine, you get a digital image instantly. It is on a computer screen,” he said. “It makes things quicker because it is literally right there, you don’t have to wait for an X-ray or wait for the film to get done, it is there on the screen.”

Wright said the image is also easier to manipulate than your standard X-ray. In standard mammography, images are recorded on film using an X-ray cassette. The film is viewed by the radiologist using a light box and then stored in a jacket in the facility’s archives. With digital mammography, the breast image is captured using a special electronic X-ray detector, which converts the image into a digital picture for review on a computer monitor. The digital mammogram is then stored on a computer.

“The radiologist can pull the image on the screen, zoom in or out, move it around and look at the image from different angles,” Wright said. “You just can’t do that with the X-ray. If something is there, you can see it and deal with it right then. It takes all the extra wait time out of the equation.”

While the machine is not cheap — estimated to cost a couple hundred thousand dollars — officials are confident a big push from the gala will get the machine in the Outpatient Diagnostic Center.

“We want to keep the business local,” said Warren. “We are hoping to have it up and running there later this year or early 2011. It is going to happen.”

Warren also notes that because of the economy, the Foundation is mixing things up this year at the gala, whose theme will be “A Night in Hollywood.”

“We have reduced the price of tickets so we can get more people in and support our cause,” she said. “It is also going to be cocktail attire instead of a black tie event. But nothing else has changed; we are going to have a great evening.”

The deadline to purchase tickets is Oct. 22.

For more information, call Warren at 910- 596-4269, or email her at bwarren@sampsonrmc.org.

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@heartlandpublications.com.