Mammogram bus makes breast cancer screenings more accessible across metro area

A HealthPartners resource is helping women in underserved communities get access to mammograms.

The Mammo a-go-go bus – a partnership between HealthPartners, the Jane Brattain Breast Center and the community – travels throughout the metro area and offers no-fee mammograms for women who might not have insurance, or don’t have the resources to pay for a mammogram.

There are also interpreters on site to make sure a woman fully understands the procedure.

“It just is an amazing service that really – when brought into a community – can be truly life saving for a woman,” said Angela Nelson, the manager of the Jane Brattain Breast Center.

Groups are able to book the bus to come out to a community event.

Most recently, the Mammo a-go-go bus parked at the HmongTown Marketplace, where more than 20 women got screened.

Organizers say having the bus come to them makes the experience so much easier for the women they serve.

“In our Asian community, a lot when you look at the data, a lot of us don’t get screened and the people that come to the mobile mammogram, they keep coming back each year,” said Yee Lang, a Lao Center community organizer.

HealthPartners says the goal of the service is to remove barriers and make mammograms more accessible, and new data shows it’s working.

So far this year, 26 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed through the bus.

CLICK HERE if you want to book the bus to visit your community event. CLICK HERE to learn more about the bus and find where it is today.