Promoting Digital Health Strategies to Enhance Breast Cancer Prevention and Recovery

By Patricia Thangaraj

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Promoting health communications so that breast cancer patients, survivors, previvors, their families and caregivers they can understand cancer and their hereditary risk factors so that they can make more informed decisions regarding their health and that of their families would continue to be our top priority.

Accordingly, we would heighten our health promotion content during this month to encourage these groups to engage in positive behavioural modifications including eating healthier and living healthier lifestyles, which would result in more effective chronic disease management.

A critical component of this would be patient education on the BRCA gene, cancer genetics and genomics, liquid biopsy tests, homologous recombination, PARP inhibitors, precision and personalized medicine, clinical trials, health technologies and other specialized topics so that they can do whatever is in their power to understand and manage their condition more effectively and reduce their and their families risks of getting this cancer.

Promoting DEI policies and practices in cancer care in Canada is imperative in driving change at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, which in turn can then ensure that oncologists, GPs, nurses and other members of a cancer patient’s health care team have all the resources they need to concentrate on developing ground-breaking research, treatment and care; host educational online and in-person seminars and workshops and provide other necessary programs and services, all aimed at reducing the incidences and deaths from this disease.

It also provides an avenue for the corporate sector and other funding institutions to invest in the aforementioned. While in Canada, we are fortunate enough to have some of the best cancer hospitals, clinicians, scientists and researchers in the world, access to cancer care still remains an issue for many marginalised populations including IRER populations and those living in rural and remote parts of the country.

Ensuring that these groups have access to this care remains a top priority for the Annie Parker Foundation. Accordingly, we will continue to:

1. Provide digital and print health information (HI) for cancer patients, survivors, previvors, their families and caregivers on healthy diets and lifestyles, prevention and recovery.
2. Develop partnerships with hospitals, corporations, funding institutions, other service providers, the media, agencies, vendors and other key stakeholders to expand our patient education content.

All in an effort to ensure that these groups can live longer and improve their quality of life. Accordingly, we look forward to developing partnerships with public, private, non-profit and community based organizations in order to achieve this goal.

Sincerely,

Patricia Thangaraj

Director of Corporate Communications, Public Relations and Marketing Annie Parker Foundation