Rear Admiral Blumenthal envisioned and directed the Missiles to Mammograms initiative enlisting the help of the CIA, DOD, and NASA to apply their imaging technology used for seeing the surface of Mars and missiles in the sky, to improve breast cancer detection. The initiative convened America’s top radiologists with these agencies’ leading imaging experts. The project fueled the deployment of digital mammography, computer assisted diagnosis (an early application of AI to health) and 3-D medical imaging.