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22 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday October 6, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com State-of-the-art technology a gift to Oakville Thanks to Bruce and Betty Birmingham of Oakville, Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) has a new Bruce and Betty Birmingham Digital Mammography Suite at OakvilleTrafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH). The Birminghams donated the $783,000 needed to equip the Women's Imaging Centre with a state-of-the-art Hologic Selenia Digital Mammography machine, providing HHS with the most recent technology in breast imaging. "Mammography is our first line of defense in the early detection of breast cancer. From a women's perspective, a digital mammogram is similar to a traditional mammogram. Positioning and compression of the breast are identical. The advantage of digital mammography is that it provides us with better resolution, especially of dense breast and the health of our community, and have been for over 20 years, donating a total of $4 million to-date to various areas of this hospital," said Mags Shorey, chair of the Oakville Hospital Foundation Board of Directors. "And here they are, once again, coming forward with another wonderful new gift." "Such tremendous generosity is a prime example of community support in action. It puts new technology directly in the hands of our doctors and healthcare professionals and provides our patients with access to an enhanced level of care close to home. This amazing gift will touch many lives," said John Oliver, President and CEO of HHS. "The purchases of vital and muchneeded medical equipment are made possible through such community donations and the fundraising efforts of our Oakville Hospital Foundation." "OTMH is a fine community hospital with excellent staff and leadership ­ one that has always met or exceeded all the benchmarks for both quality of care and efficiency," said Birmingham, a former Oakville Hospital Foundation Board member and a former Scotiabank president. "We knew that given this hospital's track record, our gift would be maximized here. You don't have to be a banker to know that in today's economic climate, government funding alone cannot provide for everything -- especially when it comes to high tech medical equipment. However, we certainly cannot let that determine the quality of our community's healthcare." To commemorate the gift to community healthcare, a plaque was unveiled dedicating the new unit as the Bruce and Betty Birmingham Digital Mammography Suite. HHS is comprised of three community hospitals -- Georgetown Hospital, Milton District Hospital and OTMH. Together the hospitals provide healthcare to more than 275,000 residents in the rapidly growing region of Halton. The Oakville Hospital Foundation raises funds for OTMH. MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH Do you have back or neck pain? Our Spinal Decompression Technology can help! Call NOW for a free report on how to get your life back! DEREK WOOLLAM / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER EQUIPPED FOR THE FUTURE: Betty and Bruce Birmingham of Oakville donated $783,000 to Halton Healthcare Services (HHS) to equip the Women's Imaging Centre with a state-of-the-art Hologic Selenia Digital Mammography machine. tissue, and a lower average radiation dose without compromising diagnostic accuracy. It also gives us the ability to manipulate the image -- adjusting its contrast, brightness and magnification levels -- until we get the clearest view," said Dr. Robert Marotta, chief of Diagnostic Imaging at HHS. "Digital mammography has a number of attributes that may help a small breast tumor stand out from surrounding normal tissue." Digital mammography also provides faster image acquisition and display as well as easier image storage and retrieval. "The beauty of digital technology is that we can easily transfer any image electronically between our other hospitals in mere seconds," said Marotta. "In addition, digital mammography lends itself to another recent innovation, computer-aided detection (CAD), which obtains a second, computerized reading in the hope of finding more cancers. This is truly leading-edge technology." "We have used Diagnostic Imaging Services, the Emergency Room, and the O.R. at OTMH time and again over the past 27 years, and we've always received tremendous care," said Betty Birmingham. "The doctors at OTMH are outstanding, and the staff is exceptional. Everyone is always compassionate and extremely helpful." "When we learned about the new advances in digital mammography, we wanted to make sure patients at OTMH could benefit from this amazing new technology," said Bruce Birmingham. "We feel it was our duty and responsibility to give something back." "The Birminghams are community leaders in their own right. They are outstanding supporters of both OTMH 905-339-2500 Do you suffer from seasonal allergies caused by ragweed? Allied Research International is seeking people with allergies to ragweed pollen to test an investigational allergy vaccine. You may qualify to participate if you are between 18-55 years old and can attend multiple visits to our facility. Qualifying participants will be compensated up to $3,700 upon study completion. 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