ROME, Ga., Oct. 15, 2025 – Sixteen years ago, Harbin Clinic surgeon Dr. Paul Brock worked hand in hand with Aimee Griffin – now vice president for Professional Services at Atrium Health Floyd – to create a new concept in breast care for women in northwest Georgia. That ethos continues today with Atrium Health Floyd and Harbin Clinic working together as One Team to advance cancer care in our community.
Their shared vision forever changed breast health care in northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama and established Atrium Health Floyd and Harbin Clinic as the area’s breast care experts and leaders in advocating for quick results and quality care that is available close to home.
Working with radiologists, pathologists and medical staff, Griffin and Brock combined their energies to create The Breast Center at Floyd and the “Know in 24” promise to ensure patients receive their mammography results quickly — usually with 24 hours.
“We designed The Breast Center to create a single point of entry for women to have mammograms, screening breast exams and diagnostic studies and within 24 hours be able to have the results of these studies to shorten the length of time they have from diagnosis to ultimate treatment options,” Brock said.
"Establishing The Breast Center was not just a professional endeavor," Griffin said. "It was personally fulfilling. To know that we could impact the anxiety women feel following a mammogram, to know that we could reach women who otherwise might skip having an annual mammogram, to know that we would most definitely save lives, was so much bigger than establishing a new service line."
“Women, unfortunately in the past, have had to wait days, sometimes weeks for the information we got from their mammograms,” Brock said. “That delay is anxiety producing and is very difficult for patients. It has always been my goal to try to reduce that as much as possible to the shortest time interval for the patient’s sake.”
Today, The Breast Center and Harbin Clinic Oncology stand together as leaders driven by a desire to do what is best for their patients. And now that these two entities are part of the same health system, they continue to work to bring the highest level of care through a comprehensive and holistic approach.
In addition to screening and diagnostic mammograms, The Breast Center provides on-site clinical breast exams from specially trained providers, risk assessments, genetic testing and biopsies as well as breast health education. This comprehensive approach to breast health care, Griffin said, is key to removing access barriers and to empowering an entire community with life-saving knowledge.
That empowerment is perhaps most visible at the annual Paper Doll Parade 5K and health walk. The annual event is a celebration of empowerment, an acknowledgement that when patients have the information they need, they can take control of their health and help improve their outcomes. It’s not uncommon to find Brock reuniting with a former patient or Griffin celebrating a breast cancer survivor.
"I am grateful that nearly two decades ago, we worked together with Harbin Clinic to impact the health of women and their families, and I am grateful that work has continued," Griffin said. "The Breast Center mission of providing mammogram results within 24 business hours was only possible because of our cooperation. Now that we are one Advocate Health/Atrium Health team, I can only imagine what we can accomplish together in the next 20 years."