Ascension Sacred Heart adds third Women’s Diagnostic Center in Watersound Origins. See photos.

WATERSOUND — Ascension Sacred Heart has opened a new Women's Diagnostic Center that offers 3D mammography. The center also features a breast health

navigator who provides support from diagnosis to treatment for new patients diagnosed with breast cancer.

This is Ascension Sacred Heart’s third women’s diagnostic center in the region.

“After opening Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Women’s Diagnostic Center last June, we saw the need for another center to improve access for women in the the region,” Chief Medical Officer Mario Pulido said. “The addition of 3D mammography in Watersound Origins will make it easier for women to get their annual screening where they live or work.”

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Designed with a woman's comfort and convenience in mind, the new Women’s Diagnostic Center is at 75 Origins Main St., Suite 201, in Watersound. It is on the second floor of the Watersound Town Center building.

The center is near Ascension Medical Group Sacred Heart at Watersound that includes primary care and OB/GYN services. The center will provide a variety of services including:

• 3D mammography.

• a patient navigator to guide and support women, provide resources and facilitate.

• coordination among caregivers and patients.

• bone density imaging and ultrasound.

“At the sister facility at Emerald Coast, we have found that approximately 30 percent of women who were screened needed follow-up testing,” Pulido said. “It is recommended that women are screened annually starting at age 40, although some women’s doctors may recommend screening earlier.”

The care team at the new women’s center will work closely with Ascension Sacred Heart

surgical and cancer care teams to provide reconstructive breast services.

Ascension Sacred Heart employs one of the only breast oncology surgeons in the region, Dr. Jonathan K. Smith, a board-certified general surgeon with more than 20 years of experience. Smith is also fellowship-trained in breast surgical oncology with an office in Miramar Beach, and he performs surgeries at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast.

A second fellowship-trained breast oncology surgeon, Dr. Alison Moody, will join Ascension Sacred Heart Bay in September.

Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Women’s Diagnostic Center celebrated its one-year anniversary June 11. Ascension Sacred Heart Bay’s Women’s Diagnostic Center opened in February. Plans are in the works for a new Ascension Sacred Heart Gulf Women’s Diagnostic Center. Currently, the location offers 2D mammography, ultrasound and breast biopsy.

For more information about the Women's Diagnostic Centers, visit

ascension.org/sacredheartmammogram. For more information about Cancer Care, visit

ascension.org/sacredheartcancer.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Ascension Sacred Heart adds Watersound Women’s Diagnostic Center