Empowering people to take a more proactive role in their health can lead to significant improvements in the prevention and treatment of cancer. This has never been more important than now, as the COVID-19 pandemic has led many people to delay cancer screenings, diagnoses and treatments. Ned Shapless, director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has said that screening delays in breast and colorectal cancers alone in 2020 could result in about 10,000 extra cancer deaths over the next decade.
On World Cancer Day this Feb. 4, one of the themes is, “Together, all our actions matter.” That’s why today is a perfect day to announce this new program by the CDC Foundation (CDCF), which is supported by Amgen. The program called EmPOWERed Health aims to educate and inspire people to be more proactive in their health, and in the prevention and treatment of cancer.
“There is good evidence that empowerment and shared-decision making can have a significant impact. EmPOWERed Health is an opportunity to build and launch innovation that can improve cancer care, and we are excited to grow our long-standing relationship with CDC and the CDC Foundation with this new initiative,” says Darryl Sleep, senior vice president of Global Medical and chief medical officer at Amgen.
One focus of the program will be reaching those disproportionally affected by cancer such as people of color and lower-income populations. The program will also host a virtual hackathon to encourage the development of innovative tools to improve patient-physician conversations and shared decision-making.
Click here to read the press release. The CDCF is also inviting patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals to join the EmPOWERed Health community on their newly launched Instagram channel.
