This month, Mammosphere is cutting down the price of breast health care.
The breast imaging and cancer prevention application lets patients digitally transfer records to and from health care providers in a flash. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the service is available free of charge for Massachusetts women for a few more days.
Cristin Gardner, the director of consumer products at Life Image, Mammosphere’s creator, said the browser-based app puts patients in control of their medical data.
“One of the most powerful things that you can do to ensure that you have an efficient and effective breast cancer screening experience, is to get your hands on your own records,” she said.
Throughout the year, Mammosphere functions as a B2B application for its national network of hospitals and care centers. But women—and anyone who might be at risk for breast cancer—can scan and surveil their prior records for free this month, even if they have with no affiliation with the app’s network.
The initiative is part of the “My Data, My Rights” campaign that empowers women to oversee their own health.
With Mammosphere, long gone are the days where breast screenings were documented on papers and CDs, then sent via mail or fax.
“While other areas of our consumer lives have evolved to be much more digital, much more instantaneous, health care hasn't caught up,” said Gardner. “In health care, if you need access to your records, if you move, or if you want to seek care somewhere else, you're stuck in this process with CDs—in 2019. ”
Using the app, patients can virtually request, upload and share breast screenings, pathology reports and test results with their important contacts: physicians, researchers and loved ones.
Mammosphere drives up patients’ chances of receiving an efficient and accurate diagnosis. According to the organization's website, it reduces the number of false positives for breast cancer by 40 to 60 percent.
When patients fail to gather their prior records in time, as one in four do, the likelihood of being called back for additional testing or receiving a false positive is astronomical.
“[Mammosphere] just takes the whole hassle out,” said Gardner. “It cuts out the process of having to submit a form that often requires a separate portal or even a wet sign form, and this makes diagnosing easier.”
The majority of Mammosphere users are women between 40 and 65 years old with “varying levels of digital literacy,” said Gardner. So the team behind the app created a user-friendly search engine and instructional video to cater to everyone.
After spending over 10 years connecting different sects of the medical industry, Life Image launched Mammosphere in July 2018.
Since then, hospitals and research centers in Life Image’s network have drawn from medical data stored in the app for wide-scale clinical studies—with patients’ permission, of course.
“It opens up a wealth of possibilities for patients to participate in research and clinical trials,” Gardner said. “When the patient owns it, when they're in control, it really opens up a lot of very positive opportunities for all involved.”
In terms of privacy and security, the app requires users to sign HIPAA and provision forms that safeguard their information.
Mammosphere's developers will focus on making the application easier to navigate for its continued users after the campaign ends at the close of the month.
“My core tenet is: How do we make it easy?" Gardner said. "A lot of that will be lesson learned as we have experience with more users and unique users.”
Life Image is one of BostInno's 50 on Fire 2019. Meet Life Image and the rest of the winners Nov. 7 at Artists for Humanity. Grab your tickets here.
