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JULY
2009
Hello
Everyone & Welcome to our
Newsletter:
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ABOUT THE
COLON CANCER FOUNDATION
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The Colon
Cancer Foundation was founded in 2004, and received 501(c) (3)
status on January 19, 2005. The President of the
Foundation, David Rodman Cohan, an international business
attorney, is noted for his roles in the formation and
development of Charitable Organizations both in Baltimore and
on a national basis such as: The Tom Clancy Foundation, The
Bea Gatty Fund noted for its work with the homeless, and the
Life Lines Foundation for Native Americans. David vigorously
launched this Foundation after the tragic loss of his daughter
Susan Cohan, who was survived by two young
children.
Since its inception, The Susan Cohan Colon
Cancer Foundation has followed a specific roadmap for success
and established itself as the leader in the battle against
Colon Cancer.
As a result of thorough research and a
focused business plan our highly successful programs have
resonated across the United States attracting the leading
institutions, thought leaders, and a ground swell of support
from the general public.
MISSION
STATEMENT
The Susan
Cohan Colon Cancer Foundation will work to eliminate colon
cancer as a life threatening disease through the development
and dissemination of educational programs focused on
prevention, early screening and detection, and aggressive
therapeutic intervention.
The Board of Directors is
comprised of Key Opinion Leaders from the colorectal field
including the disciplines of surgery, oncology, education, and
patient advocacy. As you will view below, these leaders
are affiliated with such institutions as Johns Hopkins
Hospital, Sinai Hospital (Baltimore), Hahnemann, Drexel, the
University of Washington, and the Cleveland Clinic. The
Foundation has recently expanded internationally adding the
SMBD Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. The
foundation has also expanding into Puerto Rico. Leading
members of the business community and passionate family
members round out the Board.
BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
Dr.
Rodrigo B. Erlich, M.D.
Symposium
Director
Assistant Professor of Medicine and
Oncology
Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine;
Division of Hematology & Medical
Oncology
Sinai Hospital of
Baltimore
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Dr.
David E. Stein, M.D.
Director of
Education
Assistant Professor & Chief,
Division of Colorectal Surgery
Department of
Surgery
Drexel University College of
Medicine
Hahnemann University
Hospital
Philadelphia, PA |
Dr.
Juan J. Nogueras, M.D., F.A.C.S.,
F.A.S.C.R.S.
Chairman, Division of
Surgery
Cleveland Clinic, Florida |
Howard
K. Berg, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Colon and
Rectal Surgeon
Colon Rectal Surgical
Associates, LLC.
Baltimore,
Maryland |
Richard
P. Billingham, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Clinical
Professor, Department of Surgery
University of
Washington
Seattle, Washington |
Lynda
R. Mandell, M.D.,
Ph.D.
Psycho-oncologist
Oncology
Consulting Services, P.C.,
New York City,
NY |
Bernard
Levin, M.D.
Vice-President for Cancer
Prevention and Population Sciences
Division
Head of Cancer Prevention and Population
Sciences
Betty B. Marcus Chair in Cancer
Prevention
Professor of Medicine, Department of
Gastrointestinal Medicine and Nutrition
The
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center
Houston, Texas |
James
W. Fleshman, Jr., M.D.
Chief of Colon
and Rectal Surgery
Washington University at
Barnes Jewish Hospital
Professor of Surgery,
Washington University
St. Louis,
Missouri |
Dr.
Marcia R. Cruz-Correa, M.D.,
Ph.D.
Clinical Professor, Department
of Surgery
University of Puerto Rico,
Comprehensive Cancer Center
San Juan, Puerto
Rico |
Phillip
Gordon, M.D., F.R.C.S.(c),
F.A.C.S.
Vice Chairman, Department of
Surgery
Director Colon and Rectal
Surgery
Sir Mortimer B. Davis - Jewish General
Hospital
Montreal, Quebec |
Michael
Page, M.D.
Midwest Medical Director
Department of Colorectal Surgery
Iowa
Clinic |
Nancy
Morin, MD
Assistant Professor of
Surgery
Division of Colon and Rectal
Surgery
S M B D Jewish General Hospital
McGill University, Teaching
Hospital
Montreal, Quebec |
Daniel
Walker Nixon, M.D.
Professor of
Experimental Oncology
Medical University of
South Carolina, Charleston, SC
Emeritus and
Clinical Professor of Medicine
Visiting
Physician
Rockefeller University, New York,
NY |
David
Rodman Cohan
Foundation
President |
Dennis
P. Malone
Director |
Robert
A. Smith
Executive Director |
Bernadette
Carroll
Director |
Greg
Mario
Director of New Jersey
Chapter |
Noah
Kodeck
Director |
Barry
Blank
Director |
Frank
Glorioso
Director |
C.
John Serio, Jr.
Director |
Jody
C. Weiner
Director |
Kim
Cohan
Director and Treasurer |
Frank
Scarfield
Director |
David
H. Mattson
Director |
Scott
Eckels
Director |
B.
Wayne Resnick
Director |
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BOARD
CHAIR
David
Cohan vigorously launched this Foundation after the
tragic loss of his daughter Susan who was survived by two
young children. David and Susan were both fueled by the
knowledge that over fifty-six thousand people die per year of
colon cancer, making it the second leading cancer killer in
the United States. They realized through education, early
screening, and lifestyle modifications there could be drastic
reduction of these horrific statistics, often to the point of
eliminating the disease.
Susie's “vision”
before her untimely death was to create a unique format/venue
to educate the public about colorectal disease while also
providing support to those impacted by it. This vision remains
David and the Foundation's driving
force.
What Komen has meant to breast
cancer and Armstrong and Milken to prostate cancer, we have
demonstrated the ability to have a similar impact in
Colorectal Cancer in less than three years. As professionals,
we have always understood the importance of representing the
largest companies and institutions in the world in a manner
that would suit their image while maintaining our standards as
a non-profit corporation. We take great pride in that
over the past few years our many programs throughout the
United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico have been an
overwhelming success. Due to the ongoing incidence and
mortality rates in ethnic and underserved communities, we
continue our focus on reaching out to those communities with
our proven programs.
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The Save
Our Parents Program is an
interactive hands-on mini medical school. The program has been
successful in educating people of all ages throughout North
America and Puerto about the necessity of early screening for
colon cancer. The program has been delivered in English and
Spanish. Thousands of participants perform colonoscopies on
fabricated colons. We have worked tirelessly in high schools,
college campuses, traveling with BodyWorlds in museums across
North America, health fairs, hospitals, community events and
many more settings to reach out to tens of thousands people.
Save Our Parents has consistently been featured on Comcast/CNN
reaching millions of viewers. The program is supported in part
by industry leaders of screening products and technologies
donating their state of the art equipment for the public to
learn about screening options and colonoscopy.
The
Foundation completed the BodyWorlds tour across the United
States. Attendance during the tour exceeded 1,000,000
attendees, including many schools and religious
organizations.
The
Sharing, Caring, and Surviving Colon Cancer
Series was established
to provide a day of physical and emotional support for colon
cancer patients, their families, and friends. The program has
successfully traveled throughout North America and Puerto Rico
and has been provided in English and Spanish. While colon
cancer has become the 2nd leading cancer killer of US males
and females, colon cancer patient advocacy and support has
seriously lagged behind the well organized and effective
efforts now in place for breast, lung, and prostrate cancer
sufferers. The Susan Cohan Colon Cancer Foundation has bridged
this gap by partnering with thought leaders, teaching
institutions, and industry leaders in developing and
implementing world class colon cancer patient-targeted
programs.
The program mirrors other proven programs in
design by addressing the entire continuum of colon cancer
patient experience, including Wellness & Prevention, Early
Screening and Detection, Pathology & Prognosis,
State-of-the-art Clinical Intervention Strategies, including
SE management and Outcomes, Homeopathic Strategies and
Psychosocial Issues.
One critical highlight of the
Susan Cohan Foundation National Symposium Series is the series
design format: Taking it to the patients – city by city, as
opposed to forcing would-be attendees to travel cross country
to one main event. As a result of this series approach,
attendance and media coverage promise to far exceed other
like-kind programs.
National
Colon Cancer Screening Month focuses on April
specifically for increasing screening and tracking screening
participation. A Proclamation from the State of Maryland
was recently signed by the Governor of Maryland officially
announcing April as Susie's Cause Colon Cancer Screening
Month. The program launched in Baltimore in April of 2009. The
Foundation will introduce and highlight the latest in
screening methods and preparation and will initiate a multi
faceted screening approach including but not limited to
corporate participation, on line screening education, media
campaign including print, PSA's/Celebrity Messaging and
Comcast Video On Demand. We will be able to determine and
track the most effective methods of education and target
marketing specifically designed to increase screening.
Primary
Care Education Series is the first and
only live accredited continuing education series which
launched with great success to over 5,000 Primary Care
Physicians in ten cities to better educate them and attack
colon cancer at a very important source.
The Susan
Cohan Colon Cancer Foundation (Susie's Cause) in its continued
efforts to dramatically reduce the death rates from colorectal
cancer has identified a significant opportunity to attack this
disease on the front lines. With economic support form Ethicon
Endo Surgery, a division of J&J our Colon Cancer and the
Primary Care Physician Educational Series is a Gold Standard
of Prevention, Surgery Options, and Interventional Therapies
providing to PCP's a state of the art insight into current
technologies. We have researched and identified the leader
provider of medical education to healthcare providers in the
United States, Pri-Med. Their reputation in this arena is
unsurpassed.
Statistics identified by Pri-Med Institute
indicate an increasing need for primary care physicians to
deliver effective and high quality care for colorectal cancer
prevention and control, through screenings, referrals, patient
education and long-term disease management. According to the
National Cancer Institute (NCI), there are significant gaps
and missed opportunities, and more must be done to ensure
proper screening and diagnosis. For colorectal cancer
prevention, guidelines for early detection through routine
screening have been established and evolved for. Effective
communication of these guidelines to primary care physicians
could improve patient outcomes down the line.
Each
educational session included a 75 minute, evidence-based
session focusing on cancer screening, surgery options, and the
role of the primary care clinician including updates on
emerging therapies, and a question & answer opportunity
for the participants to address challenges with the faculty.
In order to fulfill the need to educate on the
guidelines for early detection of colorectal cancer through
routine screening, Pri-Med Institute is the Accredited
Provider and content developer (Educational Partner) for this
series.
GENETIC
TESTING AND COUNSELING
The
Foundation has now become the leading online resource for
Genetic Testing and Counseling and will be able to donate
thousands of dollars of these services to selected patients
and families. This is all possible via a new relationship with
Informed Medical Decisions (Informed). Informed is a genetic
counseling company that specializes in hereditary cancer. CCF
understands that an estimated 5-10% of colorectal cancers are
caused by a hereditary gene mutation that is passed on in
families, causing high risks for cancer. Prevention strategies
are proven to reduce risk for families with hereditary
colorectal cancer. However, due to the limited availability of
board-certified genetic counselors, accessing these experts
can be difficult for patients and physicians. Informed Medical
Decisions makes genetic counseling more accessible and
convenient for patients throughout the United States. CCF
recognizes the importance of this access for its members and
their families and is proud to provide these services for
families in need.
MEDIA
COVERAGE
The
Foundation has recently initiated our most aggressive media
campaign to date, a $7,000,000 National ad
campaign featuring Susie's Cause April National
Screening Campaign. Our work and our programs have been
featured in various leading print, radio, and television
venues. Comcast/CNN consistently features our programs in a
vast array of markets. Those programs reach millions of
viewers and run dozens of times per month. We
are in the process of creating Video On Demand programs to be
available soon. Director Noah Kodeck, listed above,
is an Executive with Comcast and a devoted member of our
Board.
WEBSITE
Millions of
visitors view our website making it
the leading colon cancer website in the world. Many industry
leaders are utilizing our site s a vehicle to reach their
target audience and to gather important industry data. We take
great pride in responding to each and every person personally
doing everything in our power to provide information,
guidance, second opinions from our brilliant medical advisory
board, and often times just someone to talk to. As an
organization, we have been able to arrange life saving
surgeries for people who simply could not afford the
care. Each and every day we are saving lives. We
are committed to enhancing our online presence by combining
our 7,000,000,000 print campaign, along with increased
television and radio into an extensive social media
campaign.
SOCIAL
NETWORKING
The Susan
Cohan Colon Cancer Foundation has successfully launched the
most aggressive Colon Cancer campaign in history. The
Foundation is utilizing Facebook,
Twitter, Google Profile, Idealist.org,
LinkedIn, and many other
resources to touch both medical professionals and the general
public worldwide. By reaching people where they are already
interacting online we have the ability to draw them to our
website, educational events and activities. Social Media is
providing the Foundation and our strategic partners to target
over 300 million users worldwide on a daily basis with
information on colon cancer prevention, treatment and support.
By strategically utilizing a variety of social media platforms
and having an enormous online presence, we have further
established The Foundation as the leading resource for colon
cancer.
Our wonderful supporters of our educational
programs include the leaders in Pharma, various screening
equipment and testing, and surgical equipment companies.
Most recently the highly respected UPMC medical
hospitals and cancer centers have committed to
adopt all of the featured programs and are in the process of
instituting the Primary Care Education program into their
online CME programs. The Foundation will then approach all
major medical institutions to adopt the program as
well.
The
Results are exciting as
recent statistics show the number of Americans who died of
cancer has dropped for a second straight year, marking a
milestone in the war on the disease. More than 3,000
fewer Americans died from cancer in 2004 (The Launch
of the Foundation) than in 2003, according to
statistics analyzed by the American Cancer Society, indicating
that a much smaller decline in cancer deaths a year earlier
probably was not a fluke but instead marked the start of a
trend. The decline was attributed to broader screening efforts
and improved treatment. The President recently lauded
the news during a visit to the National Institutes of Health
in Bethesda. "This drop was the steepest ever recorded," he
said. "Progress is being made."
We look forward
to the opportunity to discuss with you in greater detail how
we can work together to achieve our common goals. Please call
me upon your review. Thank you.
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