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Pilot program makes mammograms available at lab inside Delaware Walmart

MILFORD, Del. — Shoppers at a Delaware Walmart Supercenter have the opportunity to better safeguard their health thanks to a new lab inside the store that offers 3D mammograms.

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The MammogramNow lab is part of a pilot program between Walmart, Delaware Imaging Network and RadNet, a national provider of high-quality, cost-effective outpatient diagnostic imaging services. It was opened in late December in the store in Milford, located about 20 miles south of Dover.

“You can come in and get clothes, food, medicine,” patient Dierdre Bell said in a CNN interview. “Why not a mammogram?”

“This pioneering initiative aims to enhance breast health awareness and accessibility, including the integration of cutting-edge DeepHealth technology into the Walmart Supercenter environment, providing women with convenient access to crucial breast cancer screening services,” a news release from RadNet stated.

Tim Merchant, RadNet’s national director of screening networks and population health strategy, told CNN that about 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart store. The same cannot be said of their proximity to standard radiology labs.

“That gives us an incredible opportunity to provide access, where it might not exist otherwise, to breast cancer screening services,” Merchant said. “We think there’s a wonderful future for this.”

The goal of the initiative is to encourage proactive, community-based healthcare, according to Howard Berger, RadNet’s president and CEO.

“The ability to offer leading-edge hardware, software and AI technologies in a non-traditional healthcare location, such as a highly-trafficked retail location like a Walmart Supercenter, could become a new paradigm for the future of consumer healthcare and preventative medicine,” Berger said.