The visit started with a discussion of the programs offered at Windber Medical Center, with hospital CEO Nick Jacobs providing an overview of what is taking place.

"The technology we have here - (the) University of Pittsburgh has, Morgantown has and Windber has," Jacobs said. "We are the three in this part of the state and West Virginia."

In addition to digital mammograms and breast MRI unit, the medical center is fortunate to have Dr. Diana Craig, "an on-site career surgeon," he said.

"If an mammogram doesn't look exactly right, she can order an ultrasound right away and do a breast biopsy right away so there is no waiting," Jacobs said. "It makes it more humane for the human beings that are involved."

Approximately 400 women visit the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center each month, often seeking a "very different approach" to their health care needs, Jacobs said.

"Windber has access to this kind of care, offering all types of support," he said.

Since opening in 2002, the center has provided a full range of diagnostic and treatment services related to breast health and disease. In 2007, the center provided 11,500 mammograms, 2,500 ultrasound diagnostics and 800 bone density scans for women and men from across the region.

"Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer in women, and one out of every eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime," Murtha said in a press release. "Currently, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women, and approximately 40,000 women and 450 men are projected to die from the cancer this year."

Murtha created the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs in the early 1990s and has secured nearly $2.2 billion for breast cancer research, according to his office. The funding has provided grants for more than 5,000 breast cancer research programs.

As part of a program with the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center will create a Risk Reduction Clinic designed to identify, counsel and manage women who are at high risk at developing breast cancer.

Jacobs told the congressman that when the MRI unit was acquired for the medical center, officials opted for the "strongest MRI on the market, a 3.0 Tesla MRI unit." The unit can identify breast abnormalities while they are still too small to be seen by other diagnostic methods and provides twice the strength and speed of existing MRI imaging equipment.

The Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center has the only unit in western Pennsylvania.

"So what happens with this MRI is we get incredible reads," Jacobs said. "We have brain surgeons in Pittsburgh who send patients to us."

After the presentations, Murtha was shown the MRI unit while a volunteer underwent a scan.

"(It) kind of clarifies it so I can see where there would be less mistakes made," Murtha said after the demonstration. "It reduces the chance of missing something."

Murtha asked Jacobs where they are drawing their patients from. He said Altoona, Somerset and the surrounding area.