COOPERSTOWN _ Amy Klein, a Bassett Healthcare patient from West Winfield, said she wants women to know about technological advances that can help fight cancer.
``I'm a breast-cancer survivor,'' said Klein, 37, who also described herself as a mother of two boys, a sister and a daughter. ``The key in survival is early detection.''
Klein joined physicians and other officials during a media conference at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown on Tuesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the USDA Rural Development telecommunications program. About 60 guests attended the event held in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness month.
Klein said she found her cancer through self-examination, but more technologically advanced X-rays reveal details previously not visible.
USDA Rural Development Undersecretary Dallas Tonsager spoke to guests and toured Bassett's radiology facilities, including rooms with computers displaying X-rays and the mobile mammography coach.
In 2006, USDA Rural Development awarded Bassett a $500,000 telemedicine grant to help purchase digital mammography equipment at four sites, buy a 40-foot-long mobile mammography unit and build a broadband network. The system connects Bassett Healthcare's Cooperstown facility to sites in Herkimer, Sidney and Oneonta and to the mobile unit. Digital images are relayed instantly through the network, enabling oncology experts to consult with patients and other health care providers in real time, Bassett officials said.
Dr. James Peters, chief of diagnostic radiology, said
X-rays and radiology services have advanced from the ``dark ages'' of more than 10 years ago when films were taken to sites in satchels. Today, pictures are taken digitally and transmitted electronically, he told listeners, and images can be enlarged and otherwise ``manipulated'' to better study a case.
The five-year survival rate for breast cancer in its earliest stages is 97 percent, while at later stages, the rate is just more than 23 percent, according to a Bassett Healthcare fact sheet.
Since Dec. 2, when the Bassett mammogram coach started touring the area, the vehicle has traveled more than 18,375 miles, radiology network manager Brenda Nutt said Tuesday. Of 1,759 patients, six cancer cases were detected and other cases were flagged to watch, she said.
The coach has meant greater access to health care for women with and without insurance, Nutt said. The coach, custom-made by Medical Coaches of Oneonta, has a generator, exam room, mammography machine and a waiting area.
Nutt said she was ``very honored'' to show Tonsager the coach and how USDA funding had been put to work.
Tonsager said there wasn't a better way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the telecommunications program than by ``highlighting the lifesaving technology USDA Rural Development has helped fund.''
Tonsager said he will visit communities in other states later this year.
``Today, rural America needs robust broadband networks to support medicine, education and business,'' Tonsager said in a prepared statement. ``President Obama and I are committed to ensuring that these networks are built and made accessible to everyone who needs them."
Rural Development's programs in homeownership, business development and technology infrastructure aim to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life in rural areas. Its telemedicine program was started in 1993 and has provided 37 grants worth more than $12.2 million to 24 New York organizations. Since its inception, the telecommunications program has invested more than $212 million in rural New York.
Though telecommunications have advanced, access is rural areas remains a challenge, Tonsager said.
``We have to promote what we do,'' Tonsager said.
