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The EARLY Act is now Law!
The EARLY Act has been signed into law! As the first legislation with focus on breast cancer in younger women, it was passed along with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, H.R. 3590, health reform legislation. This important development forwards our mission to move the discussion from breast cancer detection and treatment to risk assessment and prevention.
About a year ago, US Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz introduced a bill called the Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act, or EARLY Act, to increase awareness of breast cancer in younger women. This legislation directed the Centers for Disease Control to develop and implement a national education campaign about the threat breast cancer poses to young women of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The purpose of the campaign was to educate young women and better enable health care professionals to identify the specific threats and warning signs of breast cancer, which would then lead to early diagnoses and saved lives. The EARLY Act also provided grants to organizations that support young women diagnosed with breast cancer in order to receive the assistance they need. The bill called for $9 million a year from 2010 to 2014.
The EARLY Act was right in line with the vision for the HALO Breast Pap Test, which is the only non-hereditary breast cancer risk assessment tool specifically designed for younger women, so we knew we had to do anything we could to help it pass. The EARLY Act was introduced shortly before lively debate on health care reform began, and was pushed to the back burner. In the end, Rep. Wasserman-Schultz’ request to add EARLY to the health reform legislation met with little or no resistance, opening the door for consumer education on breast cancer risk assessment, including HALO.
About the HALO Breast Pap Test
HALO is a low-cost, 5-minute, noninvasive test that helps determine an individual woman's risk of developing breast cancer, allowing women at increased risk to be screened more frequently and with methods that are more effective at detecting small, early-stage tumors. It is the first fully automated, noninvasive breast cancer risk assessment tool designed for use in the primary care setting.
HALO helps to solve a major dilemma in breast healthcare. There are now established methods for reducing the threat of breast cancer in women identified as higher-risk. But before the development of HALO, there was no method for conveniently identifying patients who could benefit from these preventative regimens.
NeoMatrix is a medical device company developing innovative devices that allow women and their doctors to promote optimal breast health. For further information, visit www.neomatrix.com.
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Media Contacts:
pr@neomatrix.com