Advocate Mentor Program

I am thrilled to be accepted to attend an Advocate Mentor Program at Indiana University April 21-23, 2009. This program is bringing advocates from Atlanta, Houston, Denver and Indianapolis to participate in education and experiential learning opportunities in genomics, proteomics and pharmacogenetics. I get to go because they accept advocates from other areas based on space available. :-) The Research Advocacy Network and Young Survival Coalition support the program.

This program works with advocates to provide an understanding of the new science in genomics, proteomics and pharmacogenetics. Participating advocates will meet and work with researchers in these areas. The program I am going to is not offered in Illinois right now, but is being offered in Indianapolis. The best part is that I received a scholarship to attend and all travel and expenses are paid for! 

A few details about the program. It is a project of the Advocate Core of the Indiana University Department of Defense Center of Excellence Research Grant (https://cdmrpcures.org/ocs/index.php/eoh/eoh2008/paper/view/1343). The program includes educational webinars before the face-to-face sessions, and the on-site sessions include experiential learning opportunities like being in the lab and spinning down samples and following tissue samples. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that experience. My inner scientist is jumping for joy!

I hope that when I am back from the Advocate Mentor Program I can have a chance to share my experience with other Patient Advocates. Even further, I hope to find out how we could get this program to happen in Illinois, involving the NCCTG and local researchers. It would be great to build local research/advocate relationships so that we can serve on study sections, concept and protocol review committees and ad hoc committees needing advocate input. 

Patient Advocacy

Last month I started my journey along Patient Advocacy. I joined the Patient Advocate program through Carle Clinic and Mills Breast Cancer Institute. The program is part of the North Central Cancer Treatment Program (NCCTG), associated with Mayo. Patient Advocates play an active role in cancer research by bringing the patient perspective to the investigative and clinical environment. As a patient advocate, I get the opportunity to attend scientific meetings, review trial protocols, and make presentations to interested groups of scientists and clinicians. I joined the Patient Advocacy group specifically to bring the Young Adult issues to the forefront of research.

Some patient advocate stories: http://www.curetoday.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.show/id/2/article_id/885 http://www.curetoday.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.show/id/2/article_id/895