Despite the government shutdown in October, two local medical professionals were able to make an impact in the study and management of breast cancer at a national conference in Washington, D.C.

Jana Rupp, the director of imaging services at Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s Imaging Center, was on a panel at the American College of Radiology’s Informatics Summit Oct. 10 and 11 in the capital. 

As part of this panel, she tore into the antiquated surveying methods by which the United States monitors breast health.

“The method by which they measure is a behavioral risk factor survey,” Rupp said. “It consists of 86 core questions asked over the telephone.”

These 86 questions deal with topics as far flung as HIV/AIDS, seat-belt use, sleep issues and tobacco use. After people are asked these “core” questions, then can answer an additional, optional 108 questions. Halfway through these optional questions are two quick ones regarding breast cancer.

“Have you ever had a mammogram?” and “When was your last mammogram?” are the two questions that determine U.S. mammogram reporting rates.

So the 75.2 percent of American women who have had a mammogram in the past year are the ones that have time to sit through an 86-question survey and then opt to answer more than 100 more.

Understandably, Rupp cannot stand this creaky system.

“I’ve never been on my soapbox, that’s why I’m getting on my soapbox today,” she said. “Our rate is way lower than the reported one. It’s around 42 percent.”

The Flathead’s reporting mammography rate is different from the reality. Rupp and the Imaging Center’s Mammography Manager Niccole Caban say the misreported rates are lulling people into a false sense of security.

“I have to explain to women,” Caban said. “One in eight women will get breast cancer. If you played the lotto and the chances of winning were one in eight, you’d play every day.”

Rupp was disappointed that no politicians were at the Washington, D.C., summit. The shutdown meant that some who planned to attend did not come. 

The only way for situation to change is on the national level, Rupp maintained.

“Policy-makers say they can’t spend money to fix it,” she said. “The [Food and Drug Administration] has to make a change.”

Rupp’s major push is to abolish the phone survey, or at least include it with a more effective measurement method. There are more than 8,600 FDA-certified reporting sites in the United States, with 84 in Western Montana alone. 

“If they were really worried about data and not about money, solutions already exist,” Caban said. “There is no reason a woman shouldn’t be able to find her breast cancer.”

The frustrating ineffectiveness of the phone survey is compounded by the fact that every October the country is festooned in pink — awareness without action, according to Rupp. 

“You can wear all the pink in the world,” Rupp said. “But it isn’t going to matter if only 42 percent of women are getting mammograms. I’m not a statistician, I know that, but this is just my opinion.”

One thing the women believe could help the Flathead’s low reporting rates is taking advantage of the Winkley Women’s Center, a mobile women’s health coach that can screen for breast cancer anywhere it can drive to.

“The average working-age woman doesn’t have insurance or puts themselves last,” Caban said. “We drive the coach to places like Browning and Bigfork and 50 percent of the women we see on the coach do actually have insurance, 50 percent haven’t had a mammogram in 10 years or more.”

While the federal government dawdles, medical professionals across the country such as Rupp and Caban are looking for solutions to save women’s (and men’s) lives from highly treatable breast cancer.

“We always talk about money being this barrier,” Rupp said. “I don’t buy that. It’s women putting themselves last. People need to be honest with themselves.”

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.