Meeting Summary 11-27-07

Meeting Summary

Cervical Cancer Project Team

November 27, 2007

10:00-12:00, Snelling Office Park

****Health Disparities Task Force Mtg. 12/20/07****

10-12, Snelling Office Park

Attendance:

Marva Bohen, Allison LaPointe, Liz Moe, Frederick Ndip, Kristin Nemec, Makeisha Nesbitt, Pauline Nguyen, Tien Phan, Emily Reider, GayLynn Richards, Sara Rohde, Dai Vu, Dia Xiong.

Recorded by: Sara Rohde

1. Welcome/Introductions: Emily Reider joined the meeting to present on her Spanish cervical cancer tool kit, and was later recruited to join the team.

2. Web content: The Cervical Cancer Project’s description on the MN Cancer Alliance website needs updating. Sara gathered input from those present and will draft a new description. Marva will review the new version, and then Sara will submit it to Nicole to be placed on the website.

3. Speakers: A few weeks ago, team member Tim Nies made several suggestions for presentations to the Team. The potential speakers are:

a. Christine Baze – As a cervical cancer survivor and patient advocate, she is available to give "Her story" about the disease and the impact it had on her life.

b. Don Nickels – A Glaxo Smith Klein Regional Medical Scientist prepared to speak about the disease burden and health economics of cervical cancer.

c. Immunization Action Coalition – This group is developing a cervical cancer tool kit. Dr. Deborah Wexler and Diane Peterson, former Immunization Program Manager with MDH, are involved.

Priority was placed on hearing from the Immunization Action Coalition about its work in general and specifically the cervical cancer toolkit. GayLynn will connect with Diane Peterson and report back to the Team at the January mtg.

4. Cancer Summit 2008: The discussion on speakers led to a discussion about the next Cancer Summit. Liz explained the event as an opportunity for projects to engage more people in the work being done, to determine what successful activities can be duplicated or expanded, and to help attendees define clear steps for future action. Many ideas came up in the discussion. Liz will update the Team in January.

5. Spanish Cervical Cancer Toolkit: Emily Reider worked on this toolkit as a UMN student last year. She shared the PowerPoint she has prepared as well as the physical toolkit that contains a welcome sheet, folders for different aspects of cervical cancer, brochures and a CD with the PowerPoint. The components of the presentation were simple and written at a level useful to women with little to no medical knowledge. They included:

Defining “Cervix”

Defining Cervical Cancer

Simple statistics

How this cancer is found

Guide for cervical screening

HPV

How HPV is detected

Antibiotics are not a treatment

Information on Gardasil

When pap test results are abnormal

How cervical cancer is treated

Minnesota’s Sage Program

Common questions and Answers

The Team liked the toolkits and would like to develop a distribution plan as a major project for 2008. This will require determining the audience, the number of kits needed, and the cost of duplicating the kit. GayLynn and Emily will meet to work on answering the cost question.

a. This also led to a brief discussion on the need to maintain printed materials for accuracy. Kristin suggested the team adopt a schedule for revisiting printed materials. This task will be part of the January meeting agenda.

6. Cervical Cancer Screening Team’s Tool Kit: The latest version of the card was reviewed. Use of the MN Cancer Alliance was approved and the designer is working on placing it into the design. The following decisions were made:

a. Content: GayLynn will send revised sentence on “Pelvic Exam” to Makeisha. The word “Use” will be added to “Vaginal Cream” in the bulleted section.

7. Screening Project: Makeisha Nesbitt reported that Three Rivers Pathology will host a meeting on 12/6 to discuss the “when, where, how, and how many” for a breast and cervical screening project. GayLynn and Makeisha will meet prior to that to discuss possible logistical concerns related to financing and treatment. Open Cities clinic is now interested, but Makeisha will hold off until the Three Rivers Project is set.