Photo submitted by Grande Ronde Hospital
The 3D mammography room at Grande
Ronde Hospital in La Grande uses power-
ful imaging technology to help diagnose
disease and improve patients’ lives.
IMAGING
Continued from page 9
seconds and moments later a radiologist can give a
diagnosis. Shortening the wait time can be life sav-
ing — and a relief to family and friends who may be
anxiously awaiting results.
MRI and ultrasound tests do not use radiation, and
X-rays and CT scans today use doses that are a frac-
tion of what they once were, Juniper said. The Oregon
Health Authority in December 2019 repealed the
requirement for testicle and ovarian shielding through
lead aprons when performing X-rays. And Juniper said
the hospital’s CT scanner uses radiation levels well
below required guidelines.
“Our CT scanner has a dose modulation software
and it calibrates and regulates the exposure dur-
ing the CT scan based on the thickness of the body,”
Juniper said. “The dose modulation lowers the dose of
the radiation as low as it can and still create an image
that is diagnostic for the radiologist.”
Juniper also said the hospital almost three years
ago invested in a software program called Radimetrics,
which measures every metric of exposure for a patient
and tracks that information for future imaging at the
hospital.
Grande Ronde Hospital also has made improve-
ments in its mammogram technology. The hospital
now has 3D imaging and biopsy technology to help in
2020 Northeast Oregon Health & Wellness Guide
the fight against breast cancer. Juniper said this new
standard of imaging has allowed radiologists to find
lesions and other potentially cancerous growths that
would have been invisible using 2D imaging.
The technology is “remarkable,” he said.
If a potential problem is detected, additional imag-
ing is required, which inevitably causes stress and fear
in a patient regardless of whether there turns out to
be an actual cause for concern. With the limited 2D
imaging, the majority of these callbacks were due to
imprecise images. Because the images captured by the
new mammogram technology can help doctors more
accurately distinguish between normal and potentially
cancerous issues in breast tissue, the unnecessary
callbacks — and the unnecessary stress — have fallen
dramatically. According to Juniper, a hospital that does
everything right with 2D imaging will call back for ad-
ditional testing 20% of the time. With Grande Ronde’s
imaging technology, that percentage has fallen 60-70%.
The 3D imaging also is available during CT scans
and some MRI scans.
When imaging technology was first available at
GRH in 1992, the hospital could handle around 40-50
patients each month. Juniper said that now the hospi-
tal can serve around 250 patients a month.
For patients who are waiting to find out if something
is wrong, this means a quicker path to treatment or
relief.
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