When breast cancer is found while it’s still in the breast, about 99% of women are alive five years later. Once it spreads, that number falls to roughly 1 in 3.
That gap is what Breast Cancer Awareness Month is really about. Awareness gets women to the mammogram — but what happens around it decides the outcome. This October, HITLAB’s Women’s Health Tech Initiative is focused on exactly that stretch: getting women screened, getting their results where they need to go, and getting them through treatment.
More women are being asked to screen than ever before. National guidelines now call for a mammogram every other year starting at 40 — a decade earlier than the old standard. And women across the U.S. must now be told whether they have dense breast tissue, which can hide cancer on a mammogram. That means more scans, more follow-ups, and more questions — landing on a system that’s already stretched. Technology can help carry that load, but only if it’s proven.
Send Mammogram moves a woman’s breast images between providers, so a new scan can be read against her old ones — and nothing falls through the cracks in the handoff
MyCareGorithm, a HITLAB-validated tool, turns a diagnosis and its treatment options into plain visuals. In studies that included breast cancer patients, women reported understanding their care better and trusting their care teams more.
“Awareness gets women in the door. What happens next decides how their story goes. The tools that matter most are the ones that make screening easier to get, results easier to understand, and care easier to follow — and that can prove they work.” — Divya Verma, Chair, HITLAB Women’s Health Tech Initiative
Chair of HITLAB's Women's Health Tech Initiative
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