A leading private hospital in Delhi has teamed up with National Association for the Blind (NAB) to engage visually-challenged women in early detection of breast cancer by harnessing their pronounced tactile capabilities.
After undergoing training, two of these women have joined the hospital as Medical Tactile Examiners (MTEs), as they are being called, as part of a pilot project.
Fortis Hospital at Vasant Kunj in association with National Association of Blind India have launched 'Discovering hands' -- a unique breast screening technique for early detection of breast cancer for women across all ages.
'Discovering Hands' is a unique initiative from Germany that trains visually impaired women, using their highly developed tactile sense to identify the minutest abnormalities in the breasts.
In a nine-month long training programme supported by Bayer Crop Science, visually-impaired women are trained to screen patients of all age groups and also detect breast cancer. These MTEs have helped to screen more than 100,000 women in Germany, Austria and Columbia in this innovative programme," the Fortis Hospital said in a statement.
According to Mandeep S Malhotra, head, Department of Surgical Oncology at the hospital, "A very recent study on breast cancer has suggested peak incidence in Delhi, between 40-50 years. Also, most of the women present to us in stage III."