Monroe Surgical Hospital offers cutting edge digital mammography with their new mammography machine. Digital mammography uses x-rays to produce an image of the breast, but an electronic image is stored as a computer file instead of on film. This digital image can then be magnified, manipulated, or enhanced for evaluation more easily than information stored on film.

This also allows the health care providers to share the digital image files electronically, making it possible for long-distance consultations between radiologists and breast surgeons. It is easier to note subtle differences between normal and abnormal tissues. Fewer repeated images or follow-up procedures may be needed, and this reduces the exposure to radiation.

According to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health website, a large National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trial shows that digital mammography appears to be more accurate than conventional film mammography in women with dense breasts.

It is recommended that women beginning at age 40 have yearly mammograms since it can provide early detection of breast cancer, which means that treatment can begin earlier in the course of the disease before it is able to spread.