Private equity-backed Solis Mammography enters new market, acquiring 6 imaging centers
Solis Mammography is entering a new market, acquiring six imaging centers, the private equity-backed radiology provider announced Monday.
Solis is expanding into San Antonio, Texas, with the purchase of Avestēe Women's Imaging Centers. Radiologist Suzanne Dabbous, MD, founded the company in 2013 following the FDA approval of digital breast tomosynthesis, hoping to introduce the new technology to south-central Texas.
Avestēe has since grown to include four centers in San Antonio with two more in the communities of Boerne and Spring Branch. In a Monday announcement, Addison, Texas-based Solis Mammography praised Avestēe’s imaging expertise and “beautiful and calming patient environment.”
"Growth provides access and access changes lives. Our goal with every market and every community we enter is to advance our mission of early breast cancer detection, and we never want to lose sight of that,” Solis CEO Grant Davies said in a statement shared Dec. 16. “We hope to build on Avestēe's more than 10-year history of providing an expert and personalized approach to women's imaging,” he added later.
With the acquisition, Solis Mammography now has a presence in all major metro areas across Texas including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin. The company bills itself as the “nation's largest independent provider of specialized breast health services,” now operating 141 centers in 19 major markets.
In the same announcement, Dabbous said she hopes to continue growing the company after its sale to Solis.
“Avestēe Women's Imaging Centers' commitment to expert, compassionate care aligns perfectly with Solis Mammography's mission and vision for the future,” she said in a statement.
Solis Mammography did not disclose terms of the deal. The company was founded in 1986 and in 2018 sold a majority stake to Chicago private equity firm Madison Dearborn Capital Partners, which has rapidly expanded the imaging group since then. Solis offers a “boutique-style retail healthcare experience.” This includes a “high-touch, patient-centric approach” that engages women in their own breast health, “driving awareness, increasing compliance and improving early detection through an innovation-driven screening platform.”
In October, Solis also acquired Breast Center of Acadiana and its two locations in the southern Louisiana, along with purchasing the Mammography and Ultrasound Imaging Center in Gainesville, Florida, in May.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.