Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center has opened a new Mammography Imaging Center that unites screening, diagnostics, and biopsies in one location. The project adds a third exam room and new Hologic units, and contrast enhanced mammography arrives later this month.
Patients pursuing breast imaging at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center no longer need to navigate multiple hospital departments for screenings, follow-up studies, and biopsies. A newly completed Mammography Imaging Center, celebrated with a July 15 ribbon cutting, brings all of those services together in a single consolidated suite.
Capacity expansion drove much of the scope. A third mammography room joins the program, and two units that had reached the end of their useful life were replaced with current generation equipment. Contrast enhanced mammography is scheduled to come online later in July, giving the academic medical center a diagnostic option that has gained traction nationally as a lower cost and faster to schedule alternative to breast MRI, particularly for women with dense breast tissue, where conventional screening can miss malignancies.
Patient experience shaped the design as well, reflecting a broader industry shift toward calmer, more private ambulatory imaging environments. Refreshed changing areas were built into the plan along with a dedicated consultation room where clinicians can review results with patients and their families away from clinical circulation. Dartmouth Health CEO and President Joanne Conroy, MD, framed the investment around easing what is often an anxiety filled annual appointment, while radiology chair David Naeger, MD, credited broad internal collaboration for delivering the space.
Regional volume figured into the calculus too. Chriss Kvinlaug, senior manager of clinical operations in radiology, said the integrated model strengthens the department’s ability to serve growing demand throughout the Upper Valley, according to an announcement from Dartmouth Health.
Hologic supplied the replacement imaging units for the project, which sits on the DHMC campus in Lebanon, New Hampshire, the flagship hospital of the Dartmouth Health system.