Published on April 23, 2015
Updated on February 13, 2018
The 2015 Dialogue for Action ™conference on cancer screening started out with a bang. Hundreds of people traveled to Baltimore—some from places as far as Israel and Guam—to hear from experts on the latest innovations in health care prevention and screening and network with colleagues from across the country and around the globe.
Dr. Diana Redwood from Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is back at Dialogue for her third consecutive year. “Being able to network, hear what people are doing in their communities and then bring it back to Alaska is very important to me,” she said. “[It is] well worth the trip to come to the East Coast.”
An engaging off-site session this morning with Family Medicine Residents at the University of Maryland emphasized the importance of prioritizing cancer screening. Dr. Erik C. von Rosenvinge from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center drove home this point by sharing that this year more people would die from colorectal cancer than were killed in the Vietnam War.
Back at the main site, Dr. Ruth Etzioni from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center spoke about the appropriate use of statistics on cancer screening of diverse types.
Later in the morning, conference attendees packed the room to hear from a panel on advocacy and innovation that included Dave Fuehrer of Stupid Cancer, Stephen M. Marmaras of the Global Healthy Living Foundation and Emily White of Fight Colorectal Cancer. The panelists stressed that advocacy is both a privilege and a right of speech that we must take advantage of so we can effect change.
In between sessions, attendees re-charged at the Cyber Zone and used their downtime to talk with their colleagues and view the winning poster submissions displayed in the lobby.
Sessions wrapped up with an overview of prevention and early detection for breast, cervical, colorectal and lung cancer and National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable group meetings.
After a packed day, here is what some attendees had to say about their experience at Dialogue:
“I was interested in all the early detection programs, all the info about screening. The lung cancer screenings and all the new stuff going on…so far so good!”
– Anne from Michigan Department of Community Health
“I like the panel discussions. There are a lot of opinions about one topic—different opinions and experiences, research and data. A lot of good info from the panels. I liked the ones today and the ones last year!”
-Shelly Smith from Utah State Health Department
“This is my second year attending and I like the opportunity to come back and reconnect with colleagues who are all across the country. We talk on the phone all the time, but it’s great to reconnect in person—it’s so important to the work we do, to get updates on where everyone’s at.”
– Emily Wozniak from Arizona Department of Health Services
Missing the conference? Not to worry! You can follow along with Days 2 and 3 on Twitter with the hashtag #Dialogue2015.
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