Lawrence Memorial Hospital is moving ahead on a $1.7 million project to add digital mammography services that should make it easier for doctors to detect breast cancer in younger women.

LMH board of trustee members were updated Wednesday on the project, which will add two digital mammography units at LMH South, 3500 Clinton Place, and one unit at LMH West, 4525 W. Sixth Street.

“This is an important step for the hospital and the community,” said Dr. Todd Oberzan, a radiologist who has been working on the project. “This is the trend across the country.”

The new technology means that mammograms won’t be taken using film and negatives, but rather will be digital images that will be able to viewed on computer screens.

Oberzan said the technology would make it easier to view results because doctors will be able to break down the images in more detail. The technology will make collaboration between doctors easier as well. For example, radiologists and surgeons will be able to look at the mammography images at the same time.

“We won’t have to fight over the films anymore,” Oberzan said.

Oberzan said studies have shown that digital mammography has increased the cancer detection rate in younger women and women with dense breast tissue. The process also requires a lower dose of radiation be delivered to capture the image.

The hospital expects to have the technology in place at LMH South by mid-March, said Karen Shumate, vice president of clinical services for the hospital. The technology should be in place at LMH West shortly thereafter.

The project also will expand the number of locations that women can receive mammograms in Lawrence. Currently, the service is not available at LMH West.

In other news, the hospital board was told LMH has reached tentative agreements with two physicians that will allow the medical offices in Eudora and Tonganoxie to expand.

LMH leaders didn’t announce the names of the two doctors because contracts have not been signed. But both physicians are female and should be on staff by August.

In Tonganoxie, the addition will require an expansion of the current medical building. LMH CEO Gene Meyer said the hospital was getting bids on a 1,200-square-foot expansion of the Tonganoxie building.

Expansion plans have long been under way in Eudora. The hospital has purchased property at the southeast corner of Church Street interchange on Kansas Highway 10. Plans are under way to develop a new medical office complex on that site.