Final Project for VECR
August 9, 2020
During my time in this program, not only did I meet and become friends with amazing people, but I also learned a lot about how cancer develops and how it manages to multiply in one’s body.
Alicia Morales, who was the speaker of the imposter syndrome presentation, presented this slide, which talked about what someone might say to themselves when they feel like an imposter. Images from upper left to lower rightL Kristin Chirico on Buzzfeed, PhD comics, Exectuiveforum.com, unknown, Vani Sharama
A lesson that I found most interesting or engaging was the imposter syndrome presentation. To begin with, I never knew this syndrome existed. I knew that many people (including myself), at times, have negative thoughts and doubts about their abilities and qualifications, but I didn’t know there was a particular syndrome connected to those feelings. I chose the imposter syndrome presentation as my highlight because not only was it informative, but it was also helpful. Learning about why one can feel like an imposter, and what is happening in the brain when it's on imposter syndrome was fascinating. Alicia Morales, who was the speaker of the presentation, wrote different ways to combat imposter feelings, which I found very useful.
The author of the news story, What Happens When Cancer Patients Get COVID-19?, primarily strived to understand the effects of COVID-19 on patients who have or have had cancer. In order to understand and gather answers, the author looked at the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) study, which included patients who previously had or have cancer who contained COVID-19. Out of the 928 patients, 242 patients died or were in critical condition. After seeing a large number of people die within 30 days of the study, one effect that was reported by Johns Hopkins University was that the mortality rate was way higher for a former or active cancer patient who contained COVID-19 than a healthy patient with COVID-19. Knowing the effects is very important because it would allow hospitals to come up with ways to care for a form or active cancer patient with COVID-19 without putting their lives at risk. In the new story, Dr. Gray Lyman, who is an oncologist, stated that “We are encouraging clinicians to be very aggressive with supportive care and to pay special attention to these patients, especially those with comorbidities and a smoking history.” Adapting and changing the care based on what the patient needs is crucial to getting the person back to good health.
I chose to read this news article because COVID-19 is a current issue that is affecting many people’s health and lifestyle. From the news and articles I have read, I have knowledge of what would happen to a healthy person that contracts COVID-19, but not a person that has cancer. With everybody in our world today, feeling stressed and disoriented, I was curious about how a hospital might take care of one with multiple health conditions.
*Editor's Note: After initially writing this blog, Tesfay interviewed the author of the article, Diane Mapes. Mapes kindly got back to Tesfay and we wanted to include that interview here.
YT: What kind of work do you do at Fred Hutch?
DM: I came to work at FH in early 2014, about 3 years after my own breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. I'd been working as a freelance journalist (writing for news sites like MSNBC.com, MSN.com, CNN.com and papers like Seattle P-I, etc.) but one of my editors went to work at the Hutch (in Comm and Marketing) and she tapped me to come and write for her. I was the first writer hired as part of an "embedded newsroom" within C & M which was created to tell stories of FH research and how it impacts patients. My stories run on the FH website and are socialized on our channels (FB, Insta, Twitter, etc.). My "beat" -- the stories that I follow and write about -- mostly involve the Public Health Sciences division.
I've written hundreds of stories since joining FH. Some of the topics I write about include health equity; cancer screening; precision prevention; financial toxicity; translational research involving metastasis (and mets prevention) and survivorship issues / collateral damage of treatment.
I also do a fair amount of patient advocacy with regard to connecting researchers with each other and with actual cancer patients (many researchers have no contact with patients, which seems fundamental). I'm all about patients and researchers collaborating.
YT: What kind of topics do you like to write about? Why?
DM: I have always been a bit of a social justice warrior (same for my sisters and my mother) so I'm naturally drawn to topics that help the underdog or the underserved. Writing about health equity and financial toxicity definitely scratches that itch.
I also really enjoy entertaining people via storytelling, language, word play and humor, in all of its forms. When writing about tough topics like cancer, humor -- even a little word play -- can help get across crucial (yet many times) scary information. People see the word cancer and stop reading. But if they see the phrase "tumor humor," they might become intrigued and read (in this case, a story on cancer and humor). I also just really like to provide people with accurate, useful information. When I was diagnosed, the learning curve went straight up. I was a health writer and yet, there were MANY things I was simply not aware of (mammograms aren't perfect, for instance; certain breast cancers don't image; dense tissue hides tumors). These are all things that women (and even men!) desperately need to know, yet they don't. My work, as I see it, is to help put them in touch with information. #knowledgeispower
Finally, I also love writing fiction! And am almost done with a novel. Very excited about that.
YT: With regard to What Happens When Cancer Patients Get COVID-19?, a few thoughts: DM: This came about by following the work of Dr. Gary Lyman, who was an early adaptor of social media (Twitter specifically) which is how I learned of the crowdsourced CCC19 study (the Covid19 & Cancer Consortium), the topic of the story. This ongoing project is following (in real time, practically) hundreds of cancer patients who contract COVID. Obviously, cancer patients are HUGELY concerned about the coronavirus (our stories about cancer and COVID get millions of hits). Gary is a longstanding "source" at PHS (I've written about his research and that of HICOR since starting at the Hutch). Definitely wanted to highlight FH's national response to COVID-19 to help put us on the map for those not living in Seattle. And to let cancer patients know the latest information available."
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