Put an October breast health campaign next to a breast image. The campaign asks a woman to pay attention. The image asks someone to decide what happens next.
I run DeepLook Medical, a breast imaging company. We work on the second half every day. So every October, while the pink ribbons go up, I ask a question that gets far less attention: what have we funded beyond the reminder?
A campaign can end at “get screened.” The clinical and innovation work can’t. Someone has to interpret the image, communicate the result, order more testing when it’s needed, and make sure the woman can actually get to follow-up appointments. That’s where I want more of October’s money to go.
October does get something right. It puts breast health in front of people who’d otherwise avoid the conversation, and it raises real money. I want companies in the conversation. I also want what they fund to still be working in February.
The Step After the Mammogram
From inside breast imaging, the distance between awareness and access is hard to ignore. I’ve also stood on the other side of it.
In 2025, I went in for a routine mammogram. The radiologist saw an area they couldn’t clearly see and wanted more imaging. I have dense breast tissue. I lead a company built to image it. I knew what was most likely happening, and I still stopped in my tracks.
Because of the backlog, my diagnostic ultrasound was scheduled for three weeks out. For those three weeks, I was barely productive, worried, and overanalyzed everything. The follow-up was a spot mammogram, the same technology I helped develop 15 years ago. The answer was what I’d known all along: dense tissue, and a radiologist who needed a better look.
I know the machines. I know the process. I was still scared. So what about the woman who doesn’t know any of it? Does she go back for the extra imaging? Does she come back next year, knowing it could happen again?
Dense tissue isn’t rare. About half of women 40 and older have dense breasts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dense breast tissue and tumors can appear white on a mammogram, so cancer can hide.
Since Sept. 10, 2024, every mammography facility in the U.S. has had to tell women when their breasts are dense. I spent time in Washington D.C. advocating for what’s next: insurance coverage for the extra imaging those women need.
Then there’s the woman who gets called back. Callbacks are common, and fewer than 1 in 10 women called back for more tests are found to have cancer, per the American Cancer Society. But she doesn’t know that yet, and she can’t find out until the next appointment happens.
Now picture the gap. She took the advice. She booked the appointment. Now she has a result that needs another step. Who helps her schedule it? Who covers the cost she can’t afford? Who makes sure she doesn’t disappear between the first appointment and the next?
That’s the woman I want every October budget meeting to consider.
Where My Frustration Sits
“Get screened” is a useful message. My frustration is with campaigns that make the next step sound simple and leave the practical barriers untouched. She still needs an appointment, time off work, transportation, and a clear route through whatever comes next.
Pink products with vague donation terms frustrate me for the same reason. How much of the purchase goes to breast health? Where does it go? What does it pay for? The ribbon should make those answers easier to find.
Companies ask these questions about nearly every other investment. Breast health deserves the same discipline, especially when the campaign asks customers to believe their purchase helps someone.
What HERhealthEQ Taught Me About Messages
HERhealthEQ gets medical equipment to clinics in underserved communities across 12 countries. That work forces me to think about what has to exist before a health message becomes actionable.
The global numbers show what happens when it doesn’t. In the world’s most developed countries, 1 in 12 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 1 in 71 will die of it. In the least developed, fewer women are diagnosed (1 in 27) and 1 in 48 die, according to the World Health Organization. That’s what a missing pathway looks like.
I can’t assume an October campaign reaches the communities we work in. And reaching a woman with a message doesn’t give her access to care. She can understand why early diagnosis matters and still have no route to it.
The equipment has to be available and functioning. People need to be trained to use it. There has to be a referral pathway, and a place to send a woman whose results need a closer look.
Awareness has to connect to that infrastructure, not just pink-ify something that isn’t a full system of care.
What I’d Fund Instead
Here’s what I’d ask a company planning next October to fund: a 12-month program that helps women complete clinically recommended follow-up after an abnormal breast screening result.
- Pick a healthcare partner that can deliver the care.
- Define the population the program will serve.
- Set aside money for diagnostic imaging and biopsies when they’re recommended.
- Fund navigation, transportation, and practical support alongside it.
- Keep enrollment and funding open well past October.
- Write the reporting requirements into the agreement on day one.
A CSR lead could take that into a budget meeting tomorrow. It has a purpose, a partner, a timeline, and an outcome you can measure. It also gives the communications team a meaningful story to share.
The Number I’d Want Reported
Let’s say a company spends $1 million. A year later, I’d want one number: the share of enrolled women who completed their recommended diagnostic follow-up within the timeframe their clinical team set.
Then the detail behind it. How many women that represents. How long they waited. How many still don’t have a completed evaluation, and what stood in their way. All of it reported in a way that protects their privacy.
An examination count alone leaves too much unanswered. I needed two appointments and three weeks to get my answer. The program should follow a woman all the way through the process instead of counting each visit as a win.
One Question for October
October hands companies a ready-made moment to move people and money. That’s incredibly valuable. The next step is giving those dollars a job that keeps going after the campaign ends.
So as you plan next year’s budget, ask one question:
When your October campaign ends, what will a woman be able to access that she couldn’t before?