Donation from Gwatney Buick GMC Benefits UAMS MammoVan
| Nov. 15, 2016 | A month-long promotion at a North Little Rock car dealership is helping provide mammograms for women across Arkansas.
Penny Burkhalter of Gwatney Buick GMC (fourth from left) presents a donation to the UAMS MammoVan. Accepting the donation are (from left) Sharp Malak, M.D.; Carrie Cochran-Raglan; Shannon Strickland; Whitney Thomas; Gwendolyn Bryant-Smith, M.D.; Crystal Smith; and Heather Buie.
During October, a portion of proceeds from sales at Gwatney Buick GMC were designated for the UAMS MammoVan, a mobile mammography unit that offers screening mammography to women throughout Arkansas. The donation was presented Nov. 14 by Penny Burkhalter, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Foundation board member and Gwatney advertising spokesperson, to Sharp Malak, M.D., director of the Mobile Mammography Program in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Radiology.
Malak, who holds a master’s degree in public health, also is assistant professor of radiology and epidemiology and director of the Breast Imaging Research Program at UAMS.
“We are so grateful for this donation in support of the MammoVan. When women have access to mammograms, cancers are caught earlier and treatments are more successful,” Malak said.
Burkhalter, who is a breast cancer survivor, joined the UAMS Cancer Institute Foundation Board of Directors in 2015.
“Everyone at Gwatney Buick GMC is supportive of this promotion and thrilled that we can help make a positive impact on the health of women in Arkansas,” Burkhalter said. This the third year for the dealership to donate a portion of its proceeds to benefit breast cancer programs at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
The MammoVan is outfitted with the most advanced digital mammography equipment and is staffed by a certified mammography technologist and a technical assistant.
Patients receive their test results within two to three weeks. Results also are sent to each patient’s primary care physician. If the mammogram shows a potential abnormality, the patient is referred for follow-up to the appropriate services.