Photo by Linda Comins Shelley Snyder, radiology manager at Reynolds Memorial Hospital, Glen Dale, demonstrates the use of new digital mammography equipment now available at the facility. Several other area hospitals also offer digital mammography services. A Reynolds employee created the wall painting to give patients an interesting image to view while undergoing a mammogram, Snyder said.

Just as digital technology and computers have changed the way people take and share photographs of their children and grandkids, so have similar technological improvements provided radical changes in the medical field. For example, digitalization improves the quality of images produced by medical screenings, reduces the amount of radiation to which patients are subjected and speeds the process of scanning and storing images. All of that is great news for baby boomers and senior citizens who face a future of periodic scans, mammograms and bone density tests. “Digital mammography is the newest, best way for breast cancer detection,” said Shelley Snyder, radiology manager at Reynolds Memorial Hospital, Glen Dale, which added digital mammography to its services in January. Several other area hospitals also have been offering digital mammography for some time now. Snyder compared the effectiveness and efficiency of digital mammography vs. the old system to that of a digital camera over a standard 35mm film camera. When technicians use digital mammography, “you see it (the image of the breast tissue) right in front of you in a matter of seconds,” she said. “Being digital, you see the image right away.” Another advantage of digital mammography is that medical personnel can make changes to the image by altering the amount of contrast or by making it lighter or darker, Snyder said.