Breast Cancer Screenings Transcript
Breast Cancer Screenings – Thomas Lomis, MD Video
Announcer: Now, here’s our reporter, Lora Windsor, with a story on breast cancer screening.
Visual: Announcer is a male in a suit. He is in front of a news studio background with glass and wood panels and a large monitor with the title “American Health Journal.”
Reporter Lora Windsor: Women know the importance of screening for breast cancer but if the woman’s over forty and has no insurance?
Visuals: The announcer is a female in a suit, introduced with the title “Lora Windsor – American Health Journal” in lower-third. In the background are rows of TV monitors playing various medical videos. The largest monitor has the title “Cancer screening” and includes clips of a female nurse performing a mammogram for a female patient.
Reporter (V.O.): We went to Valley Presbyterian Hospital in the San Fernando Valley to Dr. Thomas Lomis, a breast surgeon, and Medical Director of the Women’s Health Center and asked him what kind of programs are available for underserved women over forty.
V.O. visuals: Exterior of hospital; Dr. Lomis and a female patient walking toward the camera in a hallway in the Women’s Services unit at the hospital; Dr. Lomis talking; a technician points at a mammogram result on a computer screen; a nurse conducts a mammogram on a patient.
Thomas Lomis, MD: In the state of California, there is a life-saving program called the ‘Every Woman Counts’ program. And what that program provides for women who lack access to health care, is a yearly mammogram and…
Visual: Dr. Lomis, in a dress shirt and tie, is being interviewed in a studio against colorful abstract background; he is introduced with the title “Thomas Lomis, MD – Valley Presbyterian Hospital” in lower-third.
Lomis (V.O.): …if the mammogram is abnormal and requires some further workup, perhaps magnification pictures, or an ultrasound, then the program will also pay for the additional medical workup. The program also pays for pap smears so it’s really an ideal program for…
V.O. visuals: Female nurse positioning female patient on mammogram machine; close-up of nurse’s hand positioning patient’s breast; monitor with mammogram x-ray of a breast in foreground and patient on machine in background; various angles of doctor discussing mammogram on screen with a patient in examining room of doctor’s office; close-up of another doctor viewing a mammogram on a computer screen.
Lomis: ….screening of both breast cancer and cervical cancer.
Lomis (V.O.): So women over forty are eligible for this program. In order to be enrolled in the program they have to be qualified as underserved and get a screening mammogram and then if she requires those additional tests, she’ll get those tests. And, if a biopsy is recommended by the radiologist, then that biopsy is also covered by the program. So that might be a needle biopsy done under mammogram guidance. We call that a stereotactic biopsy. Or if we can see the lesion…
V.O. visuals: Group of middle-aged women touring a park; a doctor greets a middle-aged woman in his office; an elderly woman receives a blood pressure test from a nurse; a female nurse conducts a mammogram on a female patient; close-up motion graphic of a needle being inserted into breast tissue (2 images below);
(Visuals continued): camera zooms in on a doctor viewing a mammogram on a computer screen, as a technician points to lesions in the breasts.
Lomis: …you know, what we see on the film, we call a lesion. We don’t know if it’s cancer but it might be cancer. If we can see the lesion on ultrasound…
Lomis (V.O.): …then we can do more procedures a little less complicated and that’s an ultrasound guided needle biopsy. And if that diagnosis turns out to be cancer, we have a sister program called the ‘Breast Cancer Treatment Fund.’
V.O. visuals: A doctor explains ultrasound results to an elderly female patient in the radiology department; view of the ultrasound results on a computer monitor; close-up of monitor.
Lomis: Once we get the diagnosis of cancer, we can enroll the patient into the ‘Breast Cancer Treatment Fund’ and then they get Medi-Cal.
Lomis (V.O.): So even if they didn’t qualify for Medi-Cal based on income or home ownership prior to this, once they get the diagnosis of breast cancer, they get Medi-Cal specifically for the treatment of their breast cancer.
V.O. visuals: Lomis and a middle-aged female patient, Valerie, walking toward the camera in a hallway in the Women’s Services unit; Lomis talking with the patient in an examination room.
Valerie: I was laid off from work and had no insurance and I had felt the lump. I didn’t know where to go so I Google’d and it brought up Valley Breast Care. So I called them, made an appointment and went into them, and they diagnosed me with breast cancer. And at that point, they got me enrolled…
Visual: Valerie being interviewed in studio with brightly colored abstract background; Introduced with title “Valerie, Patient” in lower-third.
Valerie (V.O.): …in the ‘Make Every Woman Count’ program, which in turn covered all of my treatment from surgery to chemo and radiation at the end.
V.O. visuals: A nurse performs a mammogram breast exam on a female patient; surgery team operating on a patient; close-up of technician preparing a chemo treatment.
Valerie: And the program still continues to follow my treatment on any tests or diagnostics that have to be done.
Lomis (V.O.): So if you are a woman over forty and you are trying to get access to breast cancer or cervical cancer screening, the first step in that process is to find a primary care physician who can enroll patients into the ‘Every Woman Counts’ program. You can find a provider by going on the ‘Every Woman Counts’ website in your area and that’s usually like a family practice doctor or a gynecologist.
V.O. visuals: Close-up of a patient on a mammogram machine; mammogram x-ray result on a monitor; Lomis talking with an attendant behind the main desk of the Women’s Services unit at the hospital; computer screen with the Every Woman Counts page on the Covered California website.
Lomis: And if you call them, they will probably be able to help with an appointment to become enrolled in the program and then they will direct you where to go for your mammogram.
Visual: Dr. Lomis being interviewed in the studio.
Reporter: The mission of Valley Breast Care and Women’s Health Center is to stop the premature and preventable death of women from breast cancer. For the American Health Journal, I’m Lora Windsor.
Visuals: In the background are rows of TV monitors playing various medical videos. The largest monitor includes clips of doctors talking to and examining women.
End screen with title “American Health Journal – thedoctorshow.com”
