The year in numbers: a holiday message from CORE President Nancy Paris

12/06/2013

A favorite holiday tradition in our family is opening boxes of ornaments we’ve collected through the years. Some mark family milestones (first Christmas, new home, new baby), some are the simple creations of our kids from school or church decorated with macaroni and glitter, some are gifts from friends. All evoke memories from different times in our lives, couched in our minds by the number of years, ages, or grades. In 2013, we have many numbers for which we are thankful as Georgia CORE celebrates 10 years of advancement in collaboration with those committed to serving Georgians with cancer. In these 10 years, we have built a foundation of generating collaborative resources with our partners, creating a unique network of: 24 Research Network Affiliates; 5 Regional Cancer Coalitions; 297 Cancer Patient Navigators; and 6 Public Health Clinics. But wait; there’s more (numbers)! • By administering the Georgia Access, Care, Treatment and Services Breast Cancer Grant on behalf of the Georgia State Office of Rural Health, we awarded nearly $1.1 million to 16 community organizations from the sale of breast cancer license tags to go towards breast cancer education, screening, and treatment. • More than 2,040 women have been screened for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer through the work of the Breast Cancer Genomic Health Consortium, funded by CDC through the Georgia Department of Public Health and in partnership with Emory University, Georgia State University and the Morehouse School of Medicine. An additional 1,150 women self-screened by visiting www.breastcancergenescreen.org. • Our unique membership in the international Gynecological Oncology Group exceeded productivity required for membership by 158 percent in just three quarters. This means dozens of women received access to promising clinical trials. • GeorgiaCancerInfo.org acquired nearly 35,000 visits in its first year and a half, with an average of 65 visits per day. • And we couldn’t have built these partnerships or accumulated the numbers that we have without the 19 sponsors that have funded different initiatives this past year. To celebrate these numbers, Georgia CORE held our 10th Annual Meeting on Nov. 20, when we welcomed Dr. Deborah Birx, Director of CDC's Division of Global HIV/AIDS as the keynote. Dr. Birx reminded us that as we toil to provide quality cancer care across all 159 (!) counties in Georgia, we should keep in mind that our work may have global outcomes. I am grateful and humbled to have as colleagues award-winning oncologists that use every chance they get to share best practices and breakthrough treatments across the state, but also across the country and world. What I hope for in 2014 is to increase the number of visits to GeorgiaCancerInfo.org so our oncology community has access to the latest information on treatment and care. Thanks to our partnering sponsors, we are able to continue our advertising, news media and stakeholder outreach efforts. But we still need your help to talk it up and encourage your colleagues, patients and their families to use the site! Wouldn’t it be great if the 49,280 Georgians diagnosed with cancer this year and the 336,130 cancer survivors in the state knew about this valuable resource? Please help us spread the word! I appreciate your support, your partnership and your dedication to all those affected by cancer in Georgia. May you have the happiest of holidays!