Awesome Cancer Survivor

Thinking Pink and Seeing Red

I used to love October. The changing of the seasons, the foliage in New England, the warm autumn days and cool nights. Sitting by the fireplace and seeing wonderful shades of oranges, reds, and yellows on the trees outside. But these days, this month is all about pink.

For awhile, I thought I stood alone in my frustration with October's handover to breast cancer awareness and all things pink. I'm realizing there's more to the pink backlash than I first assumed. Check out some incredible articles on breast cancer awareness month, pink ribbons, and marketing ploys gone wrong.

Those pink products you assume are helping cancer research? Not so fast... - TwinCities.com by Allison Kaplan

Great infromation -- "The "Think Before You Pink" campaign encourages consumers to ask questions before buying something with a pink ribbon: How much money from the purchase goes toward the cause? Where does it go? Is there a cap on donations? What is the company doing to make sure its products aren't actually contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?"

 

Pink Ribbon Fatigue - New York Times by Barron H. Lerner, M.D.

Great quote from this article --- "It is great to celebrate one’s survivorship from breast cancer, but it would be better not to have to be a survivor in the first place."

 

Thinking Pink Hasn't Helped Find Causes of Breast Cancer - US News and World Report by Deborah Kotz

I think this quote from this article says it all: "Breast cancer surgeon Susan Love expressed these same negative sentiments to me. She recently published the 20th-anniversary edition of her best-selling Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book. It's much thicker than it used to be, due to bulked-up chapters with new information on the science of breast cancer and the wider assortment of treatments. But, she tells me, the chapters on causes and prevention of the disease haven't changed that much over the past two decades. "There's frustration out there that we don't know more," she says. "We're wearing pink, walking and running to raise money for research, God knows we're aware, and yet we still don't really have a clue what causes this disease.""

 If Dr. Susan Love is frustrated -- everyone should be frustrated. Think before you Pink!

How do we see past the pink fatigue and make sure the message of awareness, education, and treatment gets out to the people who need it most? Let me know your thoughts!

25th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care: Bridging the Gap!

[Image Source:  The Institute for Healthcare Improvement website]

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the 25th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care hosted by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  I was honored to be selected to attend this event as a Patient Advocate.  Over the course of three jam packed days, I learned a great deal about the importance of quality and saftey throughout the healthcare system and I met many new patient advocates, each with powerful stories.  

The first event I attended was the Patient and Family Advisory dinner.  At this event, I had the chance to hear e-Patient Dave deBronkart and Pat Mastors speak about building a patient advocacy speaker's profile.  They both shared tips on building a strong foundation as a patient speaker and shared stories from their own careers on how they've become the top level speakers in the healthcare community.  I also had the chance to meet many people from IHI, including Martha Hayward.  She leads the Public and Patient Engagement initiatives at IHI.  It's very clear that patients are at the center of IHI's focus and mission.  I was really impressed at how many patients were represented throughout the event.

There were amazing keynotes and breakout sessions, but my favorite part of the forum was the booth in main hall labeled: "The Patient is in!"  During the entire event, this booth was staffed by patient volunteers who were there to answer questions or talk through issues that forum attendees might be having back at their home hospitals or organizations.  To me, this truly embodied the patient centered focus of the IHI.  I've attended many healthcare conferences over the past years, but none where the patient perspective played such a visibile role.  As a patient advocate, I found the event to be encouraging, inspiring, and energizing. 

I also had the chance to learn more about the Partnership for Patients.  IHI's work with the Partnership for Patients centers around 10 core patient safety areas of focus and include: 

1. Adverse Drug Events
2. Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections
3. Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections
4. Injuries from Falls and Immobility
5. Obstetrical Adverse Events
6. Pressure Ulcers
7. Surgical Site Infections
8. Venous Thromboembolism
9. Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
10. Readmissions

The IHI site lists many white papers and resources to explore these topics in more detail.

I feel I learned three valuable lessons attending this event:

1)  Patient stories and experiences can help provide a unique perspective on the quality and safety initiatives for an organization.  Don't discount the power of the patient experience.  

2)  IHI is committed to incorporating more patient experience in all facets of their work.

3)  More patient advocates need to step forward and share their experiences, both good and bad, to help all healthcare organizations develop a true quality and safety mindset. Without patients, quality and safety initiatives will always fall short.

For me, the biggest lesson I learned attending this Forum is how dedicated IHI is to improving patient safety by including and acting on the patient perspective. I was honored to attend! 

Unexpected Carcinogens

Today, we're featuring a blog post by S. Adams.  As many of you know, I've been interested in the environmental impacts that cause cancer.  Today's entry touches on one aspect of that.  Thank you for contributing this very important perspective.

2013: The Year of the Awesome Cancer Survivor!

We're getting ready for a new year!  Starting in 2013, we'll be honoring a special Awesome Cancer Survivor every month.  Do you have a special cancer survivor that you'd like to nominate?  Take the time to nominate your favorite cancer survivor now!  After reviewing the 1000s of emails we receive here at awesomecancersurvivor.com, we recognized it's time to honor you!

Are you ready to celebrate your survivorship?  Share your story with us, we want to make sure awesome cancer survivors are highlighted every month!

Each month, a special blog post will be dedicated to the Awesome Cancer Survivor of the Month.  Since they are so good with promotional products, to honor our special cancer survivors, they will receive the official Awesome Cancer Survivor T-Shirt made by QLP.  They will also receive an official Awesome Cancer Survivor coffee mug made by QLP, as well as a selection from our bookstore.  To round out the award basket, the Awesome Cancer Survivor of the Month will also receive our custom baseball hat from QLP.

We're finalizing the details of our new logo and will be announcing our new look on January 1, 2013!  Please join us as we welcome the new year with an exciting new look.  T-shirts and other Awesome Cancer Survivor merchandise will be available for sale in our new store.  Want a sneak peak at the new logo?  Sign up for our newsletter today! 

To nominate an Awesome Cancer Survivor, visit our new nomination center!

Happy Holidays!  Thank you for making 2012 a very succesful year for us.