MAMI Adds a Breast Ultrasound to Every Mammogram Visit
For women across Johannesburg, a visit to the Melrose Boulevard rooms of Melrose Arch Mammography, better known as MAMI, is never built around a single scan. The practice has used the arrival of spring to remind the city that every patient who books in receives both a mammogram and a breast ultrasound within the one appointment, with the same radiologist reading both, precisely because one test can catch what the other overlooks.
MAMI regards mammography as the gold standard for breast cancer screening, yet it is candid about the test's best known weakness: dense breast tissue can conceal small cancers on the mammogram image. Ultrasound sees through that density. Instead of pushing the second test to a later visit or sending the patient elsewhere, MAMI makes it standard for everyone who walks in. In practical terms that means one visit, one set of images, and a single radiologist who has reviewed both for the woman in the chair.
There is good reason to pencil the appointment in during September. Screening rooms nationwide fill up as the awareness drives of the year's final quarter begin, so a slot secured now is generally easier to schedule at a time that suits than one left until the end of year scramble. And for anyone who has allowed a year or two to pass since her last check, a fresh season is as good a nudge as any.
What happens in the appointment
Mammograms at MAMI are captured on 3D equipment that uses tomosynthesis, assembling a detailed view of the breast from a stack of thin image slices. According to the practice, this current generation of machine works at a very low radiation dose, low enough for yearly imaging to be regarded as safe, and the scan itself is over quickly.
Compression during a Mammogram is much gentler than it was with the older analogue units, which the practice says keeps the examination free of pain and harmless to breast tissue and implants alike. Because the scan is so fast, any discomfort passes in moments. Women who stopped going for screening based on an appointment they recall from years back often find the process today bears little resemblance to it.
The ultrasound that comes next is carried out by the radiologist, not passed to a technician, meaning the person reading the images is the same one guiding the probe. MAMI works with ultra high frequency probes alongside high resolution imaging, harmonics, doppler and elastography as supporting tools. In patients under 35, whose tissue tends to be denser, ultrasound becomes the main test instead of mammography.
Anyone who has found a lump, spotted an unexplained change, or just wants a starting point rather than a complete screening programme can book a Breast Examination and discuss it with the team before anything further is set up. Whether the visit is routine screening or follows something a patient has noticed herself, the practice handles it the same way.
When a biopsy is the next step
Imaging can reveal that part of the breast appears abnormal, but by itself it cannot tell you what that area actually is. MAMI is plain about this in its own material: while mammograms and ultrasounds are excellent at flagging abnormalities, only a biopsy can confirm or rule out a cancer, and only a biopsy sample allows a pathologist to determine which type of cancer is present.
Biopsies happen within the mammography department, guided by either ultrasound or stereotactic imaging. With ultrasound guidance the radiologist follows the area on screen and positions the needle to match. Stereotactic guidance locates the area using the mammogram machine. The majority of ultrasound guided procedures rely on a core needle, a slim hollow needle fired repeatedly into the area of concern, while stereotactic procedures tend to use a vacuum assisted device that collects a somewhat larger sample. In every case a tiny metallic clip is left behind to mark the spot for later imaging.
Local anaesthetic is used from start to finish. The practice says the procedure causes no pain beyond the anaesthetic injection, runs for about 20 to 30 minutes, and lets patients go home straight afterwards. A little bruising is to be expected and usually clears within a week or so. Results normally come back within two to three days, which counts for a lot when someone is waiting on them.
Accreditation and the team behind the images
MAMI is the new face of Parklane Women's Imaging Centre, bringing the same staff, the same radiologists and the same equipment into a bigger, more accessible department at Melrose Arch. Parklane held the distinction of being the first internationally accredited breast imaging unit in Africa.
The American College of Radiology has accredited the unit across mammography, stereotactic biopsy, breast ultrasound and breast MRI, and has named it a Breast Imaging Centre of Excellence. The practice says it is the only unit in South Africa holding that centre of excellence accreditation, and the first anywhere in Africa to earn it. Accreditation of this sort speaks to process and quality control rather than any guarantee about a given result, which is exactly why it is worth raising when deciding where to be scanned.
Dr Peter Schoub, diagnostic radiologist and the practice's managing director, qualified as a doctor in 1998 and as a radiologist in 2007. Breast radiology has been his focus for more than 15 years, he holds the European Diploma of Breast Imaging conferred in 2018, and he serves as an honorary lecturer in the Radiology Department at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The unit does not operate alone. It sits within a multidisciplinary breast cancer team drawn from breast surgeons, reconstructive surgeons, oncologists, pathologists and radiologists. Any patient diagnosed at MAMI is referred straight to that team, which assesses the case and advises on treatment. During treatment the imaging unit keeps contributing to staging, localisation, chemotherapy monitoring and follow up, so a patient is spared the experience of starting over with a fresh set of strangers.
Medical aid, cost and booking
Cost ranks among the most frequent reasons a screening appointment is put off, and it usually rests on an assumption instead of an actual check. MAMI notes that most medical aids cover mammograms from screening benefits rather than from medical savings, something that holds true even for members on a basic hospital plan. Patients are encouraged to call the rooms with their medical aid number so cover can be confirmed, or to ask for a cash price if they are paying themselves.
Bookings go through 011 484 3149 or bookings@melrosemammo.co.za, and the practice also fields enquiries by WhatsApp via its website. General questions can be sent to info@melrosemammo.co.za. The rooms sit on the first floor at 10 Melrose Boulevard in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, with parking and access the practice set up to be simpler than a hospital radiology department.
What else the practice offers
Breast imaging anchors the offering, but it is far from all of it. MAMI is the only practice in the country providing cryoablation for breast lesions. It also offers bone density and body composition scans, along with scar management massage for patients healing after surgery. Beyond the clinical work, the practice runs Wellness Within, a collection of programmes, podcasts and modules spanning topics such as nutrition, the mind and body connection, and life after a diagnosis.
That breadth reflects a view of breast health reaching well beyond the day of the scan. The screening appointment occupies a single morning. Recovery, follow up and the everyday work of staying well stretch out much longer, and a practice that holds onto its patients through those phases tends to understand their history better than one that only sees them the once.
Why the annual interval matters
Advice on when screening should begin differs from one country and organisation to the next. MAMI's own position is that yearly imaging from age 40 gives the best chance of the earliest possible detection. Its reasoning is practical rather than promotional: although breast cancer peaks in incidence between 55 and 60, the practice is seeing a rising trend among younger women, and cancers in younger patients are more likely to be aggressive and fast growing. Women in their 40s also tend to carry denser breast tissue, which is exactly where the paired ultrasound proves its worth.
A second case exists for sticking to a yearly rhythm. Regular imaging allows the radiologist to set this year's pictures against last year's, and it is frequently that comparison, rather than any one image, that exposes a subtle change in breast tissue worth a closer look. A once off scan carries no baseline behind it.
Complete information about the practice, its services and its accreditations can be found on the MAMI website at https://mammogram.co.za/.
About MAMI (Melrose Arch Mammography)
MAMI, or Melrose Arch Mammography Inc., is a breast imaging practice located on the first floor at 10 Melrose Boulevard, Melrose Arch, Johannesburg. It is the new face of Parklane Women's Imaging Centre, the first internationally accredited breast imaging unit in Africa. The practice offers mammography on 3D tomosynthesis equipment, breast ultrasound performed by a radiologist, and ultrasound and stereotactic guided breast biopsies, together with cryoablation, bone density and body composition scans, and scar management massage. It holds American College of Radiology accreditation for mammography, stereotactic biopsy, breast ultrasound and breast MRI, and is recognised as a Breast Imaging Centre of Excellence. The unit is part of a multidisciplinary breast cancer team of surgeons, oncologists, pathologists and radiologists, and is led by diagnostic radiologist Dr Peter Schoub.
Media Contact
MAMI (Melrose Arch Mammography)
Email: info@melrosemammo.co.za
Phone: +27 11 484 3149
Website: https://mammogram.co.za/