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CASE STUDY

BreastScreen Midland

Midland’s free national breast screening programme needed increasingly reliable connectivity and download speeds at their roaming rural mobile sites.

Industry: Healthcare

Problem: Rural screening sites with limited connectivity and capability

Solution: Starlink with 2degrees' managed deployment

Outcome: A reliable, quick, capable connectivity solution

BreastScreen Aotearoa, the leading breast cancer screening service in Aotearoa New Zealand, plays a critical role in early cancer detection for women across the country. Every two years, participants aged between 45 - 69 eligible for free healthcare can receive a free mammogram from BreastScreen, which helps to reduce the number of women who die from breast cancer every year.

BreastScreen Midland screens thousands of participants every year, covering the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Lakes districts. Alongside their fixed locations in major centres, BreastScreen Midland has two mobile units which travel between 38 locations to ensure they reach remote rural communities in a 2 year cycle.

Everything was running smoothly until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, with enhanced PPE procedures and social distancing rules disrupting their regular way of working. BreastScreen Midland Manager Angela Wheadon recalls how these changes significantly impacted operations.

“In the initial two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team worked hard to ensure we were still providing our services to participants in need. However, the changes in our ways of working meant we couldn’t offer as many appointments. This meant our waitlist continued to grow until we hit a backlog of 5,000 patients.”

This was compounded by the impact of a cyber attack the following year, which meant the Waikato BreastScreening team had to work away from the hospital campus including travelling to the Bay and Lakes districts to support our region for six weeks.

In 2021, the two existing mobile units were approaching the end of their lifecycle, providing BreastScreen Midlands with the opportunity to review their service, amenities, and their providers, with the focus on improving productivity to clear the backlog.

BreastScreen Midland
“As soon as we heard about the capability and opportunities that 2degrees’ managed service Starlink presents, it seemed like a great choice for our mobiles and we are thrilled with the outcome. Not only this, but we have been blown away by how fantastic 2degrees has been throughout the implementation process and are so grateful to have their support to make the transition as easy as possible.”
Logo for BreastScreen Aotearoa
Angela Wheadon
BreastScreen Midland Manager
Icon of a broadband modem with trees for rural broadband

Productivity

Processes that used to be highly manual can now be completed digitally in minutes.

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Better patient outcomes

Efficiencies in process have allowed the BreastScreen Midland team to focus on the patient care experience.

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Connectivity

Starlink provides high-speed internet access in remote or underserved areas where traditional options like fibre or 4G may not be available.

icon of a dollar sign in a magnifying glass

Improved speeds

Starlink offers fast download and upload speeds, making it suitable for business-critical applications and large files.

Photo of the BreastScreen Aotearoa bus

Solution

As part of the service review, the BreastScreen Midland department identified the need to reconsider their telecommunications requirements and look at how they could optimise operations going forward. The department wanted to explore technological solutions which could improve productivity, with a particular focus on increasing capability, speed, and reliability.

It was also vital that their telecommunications partner had the right support on offer, to help the mammographers with the implementation and ongoing management of the service.

Previously, they had relied on a standard Spark 3G/4G connection, offering speeds of only 10 Mbps download and up to 1-2 Mbps upload. This meant that much of their work had to be completed manually due to unreliable connectivity and limited infrastructure support.

Their IT team had heard about the successful pilot of the Dental Bus, which utilised Starlink and a 2degrees’ SD-WAN solution, and thought the department may benefit from the same technology. They reached out to 2degrees, who recommended and helped them implement two Starlink and SD WAN solutions for their new breast screening buses.

“2degrees was fantastic throughout the whole process,” Wheadon says. “It was all about getting the right people with the right knowledge and I was thrilled at how well the 2degrees team worked with our team to ensure it all went so smoothly.”

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Results

Now, the BreastScreen Midland team benefit from download speeds of up to 120 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10 Mbps which has significantly improved their operations. Processes that used to be highly manual can now be completed digitally in minutes. The team can access and review mammogram images as the appointment occurs and they can then upload them securely to their patient management system. They can also efficiently arrange opportunistic screening opportunities when in the rural communities, as they have better network and connectivity.

“We used to have to wait until the end of the day to upload our mammogram images because it would make all of our technology slow down,” Wheadon says. “Being able to see the images in real time, and then upload them immediately after the appointment has been game-changing at improving the workflow for our organisation.”

As a result, the team is able to focus more time on the care experience, leading to better patient outcomes. It’s also helped with productivity, and the team is on track to clear all outstanding cases by the end of 2024.

“We have a deep appreciation for the positive impact this solution has for our rural Midland communities and it means we are able to potentially save more lives through regular and ongoing checks with vulnerable patients in remote locations.”

As a result, 2degrees Starlink has become an integral component of BreastScreen Midland’s mobile site offices.

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