Dr. Sumedha Penheiter

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89 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Nov 2023 last heard Nov 2023

Dr. Sumedha Penheiter’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Health Chatter · Minnesota State Cancer Plan · 17 Nov 2023 podcast

And we created these pink shawls for the American Indians, women that were diagnosed with cancer. And so it's very multifactorial and doesn't just target the actual screening part as such.

Well, I think it's interesting. There's a lot of efforts in place to get the screening part done.

And a lot of federally qualified health centers offer screening now. But the thing is, what next if you do end up positive? There has to be this medical neighborhood that exists or the support system that follows through with a patient that doesn't have resources or awareness once they are diagnosed with cancer. And that's where the mortality and morbidity rates become a concern. And so-

we realized that while the medical centers are still on top of screening somewhat because of the HEDIS or their reporting requirements, because that impacts their overall status as health centers, the space that was lacking was really the support. And a lot of people, for instance, in some cultures, in the Indian country, the word cancer is taboo.

And there's so many cultural nuances in the Hispanic community where it's very fatalistic and left to God. And you always discuss things as a family versus alone. So there's a lot of cultural nuances that are not as straightforward as you would think in addressing cancer post-diagnosis. So a navigator is someone who helps this whole

a patient who really may not be part of the mainstream care on a regular basis to then understand what the next steps would be and to make sure that they get the kind of support that they need in terms of childcare if needed or transportation, like again, the social determinants of health, but also a familiar person that they can trust because trust in the medical system is, is low overall.

And with that, this is someone that's familiar, that speaks their language at their level, can spend a lot of time with them. So navigators in that space and community health workers are just instrumental in making sure that this patient doesn't feel lost. There's genetic, there's also always counseling.

I know at the Mayo Clinic, once you're diagnosed with cancer, there's regular counseling for the family to be prepared for what lies ahead. So diagnosis, um, Treatment is one aspect, but the social-emotional aspect of cancer, like you shared, is so shocking.

It can be so overwhelming that we feel that we're letting our cancer patients down if we're not also focusing on the support and the legal aspect of it.

So from what I understand, the challenges has been we've tried to have so many objectives and tactics so that we can indicate the state's interest in this area. And I think a lot of times some agencies and nonprofit agencies or some health agencies can use this plan as a platform for justification for applying for subsequent grants in saying that they align with the state plan.

So we've tried to be very broad and inclusive to allow for those small groups that want to focus on a certain aspect of this plan. The challenge has been, as you said, it's very broad and And again, COVID didn't help. We lost about five years in this mix with COVID where we were really slowed down.

So I think the understanding is that we are going to continue to kind of streamline our efforts based on, as we're developing the plan, reaching out to our partners, ensure that there's commitment at the level that is required to carry out a plan in action. and also resources in place.

So the biggest challenge really has been in that space where we just have not had enough resources in terms of human resources to amplify some of the work. So I think that is really the crux of it is the feasibility of it. But I would say there have been successes as well. We've worked aggressively in like the HPV cancer space and really addressed inequities.

We have a health equity network group, a cancer health equity network group that works very closely with us and has a lot of health equity focused objectives. And so, you know, instead of focusing on one aspect per se, we've really gone through and all, use the inequity as an underlying theme to address a lot of cancers.

And so I think that the challenge has been, you know, going from just individual organ focused, really understanding a common health equity theme, which we have overcome successfully now, but it was difficult during the times of COVID. So just, you know, and also the support from, Agencies and lobbying agencies, our policy network has done a lot of work to lobby for some of those things.

So once they are in policy, it's been a lot easier. So without policy work, some things have not advanced as much as you would think. So those are the general challenges that I can, did I address your question correctly?

I think we looked at a variety of resources. And although I was not in the leadership team at the time, I am

almost certain that we did you know we we did follow a lot of guidelines and healthy people 2020 must have been one of them as well yeah i can imagine that i can't imagine that not being a resource that we so we we solicit help from a lot of resources and information and then ultimately we you know vetted with the communities and those that are going to actually do the work

to see what's most feasible and what speaks to them. Because if it is not addressing the local burden and if it has not got the engagement of our partners, it's not going to go anywhere. So long story, you know, the crux of it is yes, I'm sure we looked at healthy people. We've looked at many other parameters. There's the Minnesota Community Measurement Resource.

There's a variety of resources that establish many things around cancer burden cure treatment, availability, access, community resources. it's a, it's a composite picture. I know mine doesn't seem straightforward, but what I'm saying is it probably was one of the reasons.

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