Advocacy is right there in our tag line! Most of you know how AnCan provides navigation and support … but advocacy, well that may just be a little more vague. This past week a great example presented itself that helps illustrate how we are making our mark on cancer and healthcare nationally.
Many of you have already signed up for the The Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project that Dr. Eli Van Allen is leading out of the Broad Institute at MIT. It is one of several patient-participation projects under the Count-Me-In umbrella. If you have not yet sent in a sample, it’s easy to do – just click here to find out how to participate. And AnCan is happy to connect you to one of our many participants who have already contributed their data. A few readers may have signed up for one of the other patient-participation projects …. like breast cancer or one of the other 3 you can learn about by visiting Count-Me-In’s website. Forgive me for using ‘prostate’ as our example … you’ll see why if you read on.
I mention this because last week Eli pushed out an excellent 8′ video on YouTube showing how we can play with the data base MPCP have created to understand and analyse the records inputted to date. Currently, it only reflects 19 men, however the MPCP 2nd Quarter Report tells us there are a lot more in the works waiting to be entered. After watching the instructional video, it may strike some, as it did me, that MPCP could make a video to respond to the frequently asked question – how can the MPCP help me personally? In fact, how can each Count Me In project make its research more patient-centric. I reached out to Eli who was very receptive. As a result, Len, Professor Bill and yours truly will be putting our heads together with one of Count-Me-In’s founders, Dr. Corrie Painter, next month – so watch this space!