In his latest “Health Care Heart to Heart” podcast, now streaming, UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD, speaks with Shinobu Watanabe-Galloway, PhD, professor, and the Tim Hawk’s Chair in Cancer Prevention and Population Science at the UNMC College of Public Health, as well as the associate director of community engagement for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
As Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month ends, Drs. Gold and Watanbe-Galloway discuss the importance of screening, the impact of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center and the impact of UNMC’s new Rural Health Education Complex at the University of Nebraska at Kearney in terms of statewide cancer care.
Dr. Watanabe-Galloway discussed the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center’s role as a National Cancer Institute Designated Cancer Centers.
“NCI decided several years ago that each cancer center needed to decide on its catchment area,” she said. “The entire state of Nebraska is our catchment area, which means we cover central and western parts of Nebraska, which are primarily rural, and then there are many other important, underrepresented populations included.”
Dr. Gold praised the work of the cancer center, “not just, of course, in this month where we’re talking about colorectal cancer awareness, but all the time in looking out for rural and urban communities and trying to reduce the instance of cancer in our state.”