Access isn’t just about having health services available. Rural Albertans can face long drives, limited specialist availability and screening programs that assume a city address. These challenges compound when primary care and community services operate separately.
The mobile screening unit was an opportunity to bring lung and heart screening into one accessible, community-centred space.
Screening numbers in the visited communities rose by half within a year, and 60 people were referred into care who would otherwise have gone undiagnosed. The model is now being adopted by two other health regions.
