General Info

Dr. Gordon Hixson is a Board Certified Radiologist with over 50 years of experience. He graduated from University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine in 1952 and completed his residency in 1958 at Duke Hospital. After over 30 years in the field, Dr. Hixson was inspired to improve upon the methods used to detect breast cancer. He was spurred on by the death of a family friend, that may have lived had her cancer been detected earlier. After 75 prototypes and investing $200,000 of his own money, Dr. Hixson patented the MammoSpot® Spot Compression Paddles. This innovation nearly doubles the size of a mammographic image, reduces the patient's radiation exposure by as much as a third and can detect cancer calcifications less than one-tenth of a millimeter in size. In addition, the comfort level of the patients is also increased during the procedure. Dr. Hixson continued to improve upon the technology and patented and updated version, the S.O.F.T. (Special Optimized Full Tilt Paddle) Paddle, in 2002. Around 7 years later, Dr. Hixson was inspired once more to improve upon our ability to detect cancer. This time however, he was driven by an illness of his own. After receiving a word from a fellow church member, Dr. Hixson used an ultrasound to detect that he had the early stages of pancreatic cancer. In this act, not only did he save his own life, but found a way to potentially save others. The pancreatic screening process he used on himself is now available at the Women’s Diagnostic Center in Chattanooga.