Breast cancer – the burden and early diagnosis
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women both in the developed and less developed world. It is estimated that worldwide over 508,000 women died in 2011 from breast cancer (Global Health Estimates, WHO 2013). This represents about 12% of all new cancer cases and 25% of all cancers in women.
In all countries, early detection remains the cornerstone of breast cancer control in order to improve breast cancer outcome and survival. In health systems with developed infrastructure, physicians regularly examine the breast as part of a routine female check-up (usually once or twice a year) in addition to mammography. However, this routine procedure is provided at varying levels of time investment and care.
Discovering hands has a number of advantages:
By using the extraordinary sensory capabilities of visually impaired women, a perceived “disability” is transformed into a capability. A completely new field of meaningful employment is created.
“Medical Tactile Examiners” (MTEs) are trained to deliver physical breast examinations at doctors’ practices. During a 9-month training period they learn how to use a standardized diagnostic method for examining the female breast. Additionally, all MTEs are trained in communication skills and breast-specific psychology, as well as administrative tasks typically carried out by a doctor’s assistant. MTEs are either directly employed by resident doctors or hospitals, or they work for different practices and/or hospitals on a freelance basis.
Conventionally, a regular breast examination carried out by a gynecologist takes between 1 and 3 minutes. The discovering hands MTE invests at least 30 minutes for each session, not only examining the breast, but also educating patients on how to cope with the risk of breast cancer. Patients feel that they are well taken care of and receive the best possible preventive examination in a pleasant environment.
Preliminary qualitative results, conducted by the University of Essen, show that MTEs detect ~50% more and ~28% smaller tissue alterations in the breast than doctors (5-8mm vs. 10-15mm). A clinical, peer reviewed study is currently being conducted at the University of Erlangen.
Our vision
We are operating as a social business because we believe in the our value proposition (to the healthcare sector, and institutions supporting people with disabilities). We are committed to the social “win-win” of our model: offering meaningful employment to blind women, and creating an opportunity for them where they have competitive strength; and helping to improve the breast cancer early identification situation and awareness for the most common cancer among women.
Current roll-out
Discovering hands is planning to substantially increase the number of MTEs in the years to come. We currently operate in Germany and in Austria. In both India and Colombia we have pilot projects running with scale-up in planning. And we are interested in further country roll-out, which we operate through a social franchise.
If you are a social entrepreneur and would like to implement discovering hands in your country, contact us. Also, if you are an impact investor and are interested in collaborating with us to further roll-out the model, please contact us too. We are interested in hearing from you!
