March 2017 Newsletter – Issue 7

In this issue:

Updates

• Patient Education for Radiation Therapy: grant received
• ASCO Honors Three on GO’s Board
• Stanford Hackathon Winning Team: R-NET: award sponsored by GO
• GO Featured Volunteers: Chisti & Craycroft
• Save the Date for GO-LSO benefit concert on Dec 2, 2017

Gifts to GO that cost you nothing

• Shop on AmazonSmile GO will get a donation in your name!

• Find out if your employer matches donations

Patient Education for Radiation Therapy

In February, Varian Medical Systems awarded a grant to GO to support the development of radiation therapy education materials for cancer patients with low literacy levels.  The GO team has spent recent months establishing the foundational knowledge for this work.  Now, with a solid funding base – raised on GlobalGiving plus the grant from Varian – GO is poised and excited to accelerate progress.

Our research shows that the vast majority of patient education materials for radiation therapy are available in English and written in dense text, well above a sixth grade reading level – generally too advanced to be fully comprehended by patients and their caregivers.

Several cancer centers and nonprofit organizations do show their patients videos explaining the concept of radiation therapy and what patients might experience during radiation treatment.

Overall, the literature points to a lack of materials designed for populations with low literacy levels, both in the United Sates and globally.  GO aims to address this need for “RadOnc” education materials, working with our partners – The MEME and a team in Botswana – by developing culturally appropriate materials based on local information and treatment needs.

Please contact us at Danna@globalonc.org if you have a need for or interest in the development and/or use of such materials.

ASCO Honors Three on GO’s Board

GO is proud to announce that ASCO has bestowed its highest honors upon three members of GO’s Board:

• Michael P. Link, MD, FASCO: Pediatric Oncology Award and Lecture
• Mary K. Gospodarowicz, MD: Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award
• Patrick J. Loehrer, MD, FASCO: Allen S. Lichter Visionary Leader Award and Lecture

Article

Stanford Hackathon Winning Team: R-Net

In November of 2016, GO sponsored Stanford University’s first healthcare-focused hackathon.  Health++ was a weekend event hosted by student group Stanford Health Innovations in Future Technologies (SHIFT) and attended by more than 200 students and professionals of various disciplines from across the country.  The goal was to tackle problems of healthcare affordability, and to prototype real and applicable solutions.

Read this account from Doron Reuven, student at UC Berkeley and member of the winning team, R-Net, recipient of GO’s first-place prize.

 GO Featured Volunteers

GO Volunteers are supernatural.  So we decided to share their stories with you.  Please meet Ali Chisti, MD, MPH, Internal Medicine Resident at the University of Hawaii, and GO Volunteer from the very beginning in November 2012; and Jane Craycroft, MPH, Administrator in the Department of Biostatistics & Computational Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and GO Volunteer since August 2013.

Both Ali and Jane are original team members of The GO Map – a flagship project of GO with an exciting new edition launching in the coming weeks.  Click on the links to learn more about why Ali and Jane started as volunteers, why they stay and the critical work they do with GO.

If you’d like to volunteer alongside GO’s one-of-a-kind crew, “Join Us” here.  We invite you to help bring attention to the widespread needs in oncology by contributing to a GO project and/or participating in GO’s community service around the Boston area.

Just last week, on March 16th, GO volunteers served a dinner generously donated by Anna’s Taqueria to cancer patients and residents at AstraZeneca’s Hope Lodge. photos below

Save the Date for GO-LSO Benefit Concert

Please save the date of Saturday, December 2nd, 2017 for GO’s second-in-the-series classical concert benefit at Jordan Hall in Boston.

Help GO reach our $150,000 fundraising goal!

GO has partnered with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra (LSO) – a nonprofit organization comprised of incredibly talented volunteer “medical musicians” bringing attention to the medically underserved through its “Healing Art of Music” program.  On 12/2, GO is proud to co-host a unique fundraising event on behalf of cancer patients around the world who lack access to basic cancer care. Please join us

Stay tuned for more information. If you have questions, please email: AmyJudd@globalonc.org

Gifts to GO that Cost You Nothing

Amazon Smile: Do your shopping on Amazon via this link. Every item you buy will do double duty by seamlessly generating a donation to GO – a gift that costs you nothing!

Double the Donation: Make your gift GO even farther. Find out if your employer matches philanthropic gifts. Many do!

Thank you!