Project Renewal, a group dedicated to providing free mammograms to uninsured and homeless women throughout New York City’s five boroughs, has selected CoActiv Medical’s Exam-PACS and Exam-Cloud vendor neutral archive (VNA) to manage images from its mobile screening program. The ScanVan travels to homeless shelters, community centers, and churches, delivering more than 5,000 mammograms annually. The group recently upgraded its systems from analog to digital to enable faster turnaround times.

“We are extremely pleased with the CoActiv technology,” said Mary Solomon, director of Project Renewal’s ScanVan program. “The entire workflow process is seamless. The system is easy to use and extremely reliable. Additionally, CoActiv’s customer support has been outstanding.”

Patients making an appointment at the ScanVan generally complete their mammograms within 20 minutes. Acquired images are forwarded to Exam-Cloud for archiving, and then later downloaded at Project Renewal on an Exam-PACS workstation for interpretation by a staff radiologist. Patients receive results within several days via email or other prearranged communication.

“Most of our clients are the working poor,” Solomon said. “These are typically women with no health insurance and little time. Some women are homeless. We are their lifeline to care.”

In addition to technological support, CoActiv staff supported Project Renewal throughout the process of gaining FDA approval for their new mammography system. “Without their help, the transition really could not have happened,” Solomon said. “Other companies would not have provided that level of service.”

The new system is HIPAA-compliant and includes storage of images in Co-Activ’s Exam-Cloud VNA with Quad-Redundant Archiving. Protections include storage in CoActiv’s Tier-IV data center for archiving on multi-terabyte RAID arrays, as well as synchronous image storage in a complementary data center and on spinning media in two additional locations.

“We applaud the efforts of Project Renewal and its innovative ScanVan,” said Frank Baker, general manager for CoActiv. “Everyone deserves quality medical care, and we are proud to play some small role in helping to fill the gap in services for New Yorkers with limited access to healthcare.”

For more information, visit Project Renewal and CoActiv Medical.