[[{"@type":["BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/an-ounce-of-prevention\/#BlogPosting","@context":{"@vocab":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","kg":"http:\/\/g.co\/kg"},"url":["https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/an-ounce-of-prevention\/","https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/an-ounce-of-prevention\/"],"publisher":[{"@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/"}],"author":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/an-ounce-of-prevention\/#BlogPosting_author_Organization","name":"Regional Cancer Care Associates"}],"inLanguage":"en-US","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/an-ounce-of-prevention\/#BlogPosting_image_ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/HWiT8Ijg.jpeg"}],"headline":"An Ounce of Prevention","dateModified":"2021-12-15T17:10:39+00:00","datePublished":"2021-07-29T15:22:43+00:00","articleBody":"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJuly 29, 2021\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\nThrough its participation in the new \u2018Time to Screen\u2019 national awareness campaign, Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA) hopes to remind community members of the importance of regular cancer screenings\nIn addition to the far-reaching havoc the pandemic wreaked on society and the economy, another unfortunate fallout of the unprecedented COVID-19 health crisis has been a decline in routine health screenings nationwide.\nAccording to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the widespread request for individuals to shelter in place during the pandemic combined with people\u2019s fears of contracting COVID-19 in hospitals, doctor\u2019s offices and other health care facilities contributed to precipitous declines in routine screening exams across many cancer modalities \u2014 a trend which still persists today. But thanks to a national public awareness campaign called \u2018Time to Screen\u2019 that\u2019s being supported by a broad range of leading cancer care practitioners and stakeholders, including Hackensack-based Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA), community members will be reminded of the importance and value of life-saving screening exams, preventative care and early intervention.\nA Concerning Trend\nA recent study by Avalere Health confirmed that breast, colon, prostate and lung cancer screenings nationwide have declined by anywhere from 56% to 85% over the past year \u2014 a reality which concerns cancer care providers.\n\u201cWhile no one could have predicted the pandemic, we certainly couldn\u2019t have imagined how adversely it would impact everyone\u2019s health care routine,\u201d said Terrill Jordan, president and chief executive officer of RCCA, a leading provider of individualized and highly compassionate care for cancer and blood disorders, with more than 80 cancer specialists practicing at 20-plus care centers throughout New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and the Washington, D.C. area.\n\u201cMany patients refrained from seeing their primary care physicians or going to the hospital and the act of missing those appointments can have far-reaching impacts,\u201d Jordan said. Among them, \u201cwhen patients do return for screening again, we find a higher incidence of more advanced cancer and other co-morbidities. We often say that \u2018cancer doesn\u2019t wait\u2019 \u2014 as a result, and especially during the pandemic, it\u2019s more important than ever to pursue regular screenings and identify any conditions early on so that in the event of a cancer diagnosis, treatment options can be less aggressive and outcomes more favorable.\u201d\nAccording to Jordan, \u201cour RCCA team meets with a number of community cancer practices regularly as members of the Community Oncology Alliance (COA), a 20-year-old nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of clinical physicians and their patients. At recent meetings, members nationwide expressed dismay over the same thing \u2014 fewer patients getting screened \u2014 because they knew that it would ultimately lead to an increase in patients showing up with more advanced disease, which was the exact trend seen after the financial crisis of 2008, when a number of patients opted to put off regular screenings,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile all of our physicians are hopelessly optimistic, they were still quite concerned about the status of their patients and wanted to do something more to get the message out about the importance of regular screenings.\u201d\nThat desire led RCCA to proudly join forces with COA\u2019s \u2018Time to Screen\u2019 campaign.\nA Proactive Approach\nLaunched on July 22, 2021, the \u2018Time to Screen\u2019 campaign will involve a year-long series of press releases, public service announcements (TV, radio and print), and advertisements, as well as endorsement by two-time Grammy award winner and \u201cGodmother of Soul\u201d Patti LaBelle, a vocal advocate of preventative screenings following the loss of all three of her sisters to cancer.  In addition to a dedicated toll-free hotline and website, the campaign will also offer a Practice Toolkit with resources to help clinical teams get involved, as well as a Stakeholder Toolkit enabling employers and others to join the campaign and help promote the important message about cancer screenings.\n\u201cThrough the \u2018Time to Screen\u2019 campaign, we hope to see patients restarting their regular screenings and re-engaging with their other physician specialists to ensure that if there\u2019s a chance they may have cancer, it\u2019s identified and they\u2019re referred to a community oncologist as soon as possible, because time is of the essence,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cFor those individuals who don\u2019t currently have a routine for screening, we hope the campaign can be a wake-up call that motivates them to embrace regular mammograms, colonoscopies, etc. in the best interests of their own health care.\u201d \nCampaign advocate Frederick Smith, MD, Medical Oncologist at RCCA in Chevy Chase, MD, couldn\u2019t agree more with the message.\n\u201cThe need for people to resume regular screenings again is very important, particularly now that things are slowly opening up,\u201d Dr. Smith said. \u201cThe dramatic events of COVID understandably led to a re-orienting of priorities, but now the priority should slowly flow back to the need to address personal health issues.\n\u201cFrom colonoscopies which identify pre-cancerous polyps and prevent the development of colon cancer to highly-sensitive CT scans which can now detect even early lung cancer and improve survival, strongly persuasive evidence shows that routine screening exams prevent the risk of more advanced disease and lead to a defined decline in mortality from a range of cancers,\u201d Dr. Smith said. \u201cOver the decades, people had gotten into a good routine of annual mammograms for appropriate age groups, periodic colonoscopies, general check-ups and CT scans for individuals at risk for lung cancer, and other important screenings and we need to get back to that.\n\u201cThough we were all caught off guard by the pandemic and it stunned, shocked, and frightened us, we have to continue to be prudent and continue the preventative health practices that have led to dramatic improvements in cancer survivorship,\u201d Dr. Smith continued. \u201cScreening facilities are now open with effective precautions taken and it\u2019s time for the general population to get back to being self-aware and proactive about the healthy routines that are in their best interests.\u201d\nJordan stressed the importance of seeing a physician and emphasized the strict precautions RCCA has been taking.\n\u201cAt RCCA, like other community clinics, we take great pride in having stayed open for our patients through the pandemic and doing everything we could to put heightened infection control measures into place across our facilities,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cPatients who are making a choice between seeing their primary care physician, oncologist, or other specialist or avoiding COVID should prioritize seeing their doctor, because we\u2019ve taken appropriate measures to address COVID exposure in our clinics and have created a safe environment in our facilities.\n\u201cAs people seek to get back to some semblance of normal life, we hope that part of that will include regular screenings,\u201d Jordan said.  \nCall 1-855-53-SCREEN or visit www.TimetoScreen.org to learn about the benefits of screening and to find your convenient screening location.\nwe are here for you\nFor more information or to schedule an appointment, call 844-346-7222. You can also schedule an appointment by calling the RCCA location nearest you.\nRELATED ARTICLES\nRegional Cancer Care Associates is one of fewer than 200 medical practices in the country selected to participate in the Oncology Care Model (OCM); a recent Medicare initiative aimed at improving care coordination and access to and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries undergoing chemotherapy treatment.\n\u00a9 2022 Regional Cancer Care Associates. All rights reserved.","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/an-ounce-of-prevention\/"},{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"LocalBusiness","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"Corporate Office 25 Main Street, Suite 601","postalCode":"07601","addressRegion":"NJ","addressLocality":"Hackensack","addressCountry":"USA","name":"Postal Address","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/#PostalAddress"},"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"1024","height":"468","url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/themes\/rccah\/dist\/images\/RCCA_logo.jpg","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/themes\/rccah\/dist\/images\/RCCA_logo.jpg"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/themes\/rccah\/dist\/images\/RCCA_logo.jpg"},"contactPoint":[{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactOption":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/contact\/#ContactPointOption","availableLanguage":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/English_language","areaServed":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Jersey","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hackensack,_New_Jersey"],"contactType":"customer support","telephone":"+1 (844) 346-7222","email":"info@regionalcancercare.org","description":"Corporate Office Regional Cancer Care Associates 25 Main Street, Suite 601 Hackensack, NJ 07601 info@regionalcancercare.org Phone: (844) 346-7222","name":"Contact Corporate Office","image":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/RCCA_logo-300x137.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/contact\/","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/contact\/#CorporateOffice"},{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactOption":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/contact\/#ContactPointOption","availableLanguage":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/English_language","areaServed":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Jersey","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hackensack,_New_Jersey"],"contactType":"customer support","telephone":"+1 (201) 510-0922","email":"msalvemini@regionalcancercare.org","description":"Media Inquiries: Mary Lou Salvemini Regional Cancer Care Associates Phone: (201) 510-0922 Email: msalvemini@regionalcancercare.org","name":"Contact Media Inquiries","image":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/RCCA_logo-300x137.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/contact\/","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/contact\/#MediaInquiries"}],"areaServed":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hackensack,_New_Jersey","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Jersey"],"additionalType":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Treatment_of_cancer","alternateName":"RCCA","description":"Leaders in Advanced Compassionate Cancer Care. Fight cancer with leading-edge treatments, experienced skill and local caring\/convenience from one of the nation's largest networks of cancer specialists.","email":"info@regionalcancercare.org","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/","url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/rgnlcancercare","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/regionalcancercareassoc","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/10059183","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCFlVzU4UvZcyXBCe9ZSvAUQ"],"telephone":"+1 (844) 346-7222","name":"Regional Cancer Care Associates","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/"}],{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"An Ounce of Prevention","item":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/an-ounce-of-prevention\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]