Why should you attend the 2016-2020 Colorado Cancer Plan and Colorado Cancer Coalition Kickoff Event?

If you have an interest in reducing the burden of cancer in your community or throughout the state, then this is the perfect place to start. Connect with partners in cancer prevention and control and join forces to enhance cancer work throughout the state of Colorado. Use the Colorado Cancer Plan as a roadmap and the newly restructured Colorado Cancer Coalition as the link to improve and expand the great work in our state.

View the agenda

RSVP online! 

Attendance performance indicator clarification

In the past, the attendance performance indicator requirement included attendance of one agency representative at 100% of WWC clinical webinars. For this fiscal year, the requirement will include any clinical webinar, training or conference that included topics related to breast or cervical cancer across the cancer continuum. Examples include: ASCCP conferences and patient navigation training. This does not include HIT calls or eCaST User Group calls. If you have questions on whether an educational opportunity qualifies, please contact me, Angie Fellers LeMire.

Inside Knowledge: Get the facts about Gynecologic Cancer

The CDC’s Inside Knowledge campaign has resources for women, and for health care providers and organizations to share with their patients and communities. Web pages and buttons are also available for use.

Cervical cancer awareness month: Test your knowledge!

Time for a pop-quiz! Use the comment section to post answers to the questions below. We will respond with the correct answers.

Optional webinar opportunities from the CDC for Cervical Health Awareness Month

In observance of Cervical Health Awareness Month in January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Adolescent Immunization Communications Team is proud to present the “Taming Conversations Around HPV Vaccine and Other Immunizations in Social Media” webinar series. This weekly presentation will address various aspects of engaging with negative comments or safety concerns on social media platforms. Discussion will be mostly focused on HPV vaccine, and the unique challenges that come with it; however many principles that we will address are relevant to immunization overall. Each webinar will offer perspectives from experts in immunization, vaccine safety, vaccine acceptance, and social media.

Date: January 22 

Time: 9:00 a.m. MST

Title: But I saw it on the internet! Addressing safety concerns that have gone viral Presenters: Cindy Weinbaum, MD, MPH and Melinda Wharton, MD, MPH
Register online

Date: January 29

Time: 9:00 a.m. MST

Title: Harnessing Enthusiasm: Real world examples of engaging partners in social media discussions

Presenters: Karen Ernst and Christine Vara 

Register online

How to document suspicious vs. non-suspicious CBE findings in WWC

Non-suspicious (normal) includes:

• Benign exam- clinical breast exam (CBE) findings are not a concern for cancer (tenderness, cyclic pain, or fibrocystic may fall into this category)
• Normal or negative exam
• Discrete lump, previously diagnosed as benign. Non-suspicious lumps should still be included in documentation since this is helpful in evaluating change or lack of change at future visits.

Suspicious or abnormal includes:

• Discrete palpable lump (suspicious)
• Bloody, clear or serous nipple discharge
• Nipple or areolar scaliness, rash or color change
• Skin dimpling or nipple retraction
• Inflammation 
• Suspicious breast pain (non-cyclic or pain/tenderness determined by provider to need further diagnostics)

All clients with an abnormal CBE finding should be referred for further diagnostic testing. The provider should indicate whether or not, based on the CBE and patient report, they would like to see additional diagnostics in cases of breast pain or tenderness. If the provider recommends further diagnostic testing in these cases, the CBE results should be documented as “suspicious."

CMEs/CEUs available: HPV vaccination webinar

Join the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pa. Immunization Coalition on Jan. 21, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. MST, for a live one-hour webinar to increase awareness about HPV vaccination and its impact on cancer. This webinar can be applied to the WWC clinical webinar requirement. 

Register online!

Cervical Cancer Awareness Social Media Toolkit

This Cervical Cancer Awareness Social Media Toolkit – January 2016 is designed to help public health professionals understand the functions and benefits of social media, establish a Cervical Cancer Awareness Month social media strategy, manage social media accounts, implement Facebook and Twitter best practices, disseminate Cervical Cancer Awareness Month messaging and evaluate their social media efforts.

Coming soon! A redesigned AMIGAS kit

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is redesigning the AMIGAS kit – a bilingual, community-sourced educational outreach program designed to help health workers and others connect with Hispanic women about the importance of cervical cancer screening. This is a free, downloadable resource for the community built on the idea that one-on-one or small group education increases screening use. Hispanic women have a high incidence of cervical cancer, but are less likely to get a Pap test than non-Hispanic white women.

Updated maps on breast and cervical cancer screening and late stage incidence

CDPHE has updated its maps showing breast and cervical cancer screening (Pap test or mammogram) compliance and late-stage cancer incidence by health statistic region. Each map shows WWC clinical services sites and quantifies screening rates into four groups (depicted by circles) and late stage cancer incidence by shading of regions. These maps should be used to identify geographic areas of additional need for cancer screening and early detection. For more information on these maps and how they can be used, please review the end of Health Improvement Team (HIT) call from February 2015.