DISRUPTING THE SYSTEM SUMMIT FOCUSES ON SOLUTIONS IN CANCER CARE AND EQUITY

Danville, CA, June 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Disruptors, innovators and change makers in oncology and patient advocacy came together at the 4th Annual Disrupting the System Summit on June 15, 2021, to discuss some of the biggest problems leading to inequities, disparities, and barriers in cancer care. The virtual event, hosted by Lazarex Cancer Foundation and sponsored by Medidata, centered on three issues that must be addressed to improve cancer care outcomes for all patients and explored solutions to fixing these deep-rooted challenges.

• Building Trust in Healthcare: Exploring successes and solutions including a community-based program that seeks to break down cultural barriers and build bridges to treatment.
• The Dirty Little Secret in Healthcare: Lifting the veil on ‘payer mix’: what it is, how it leads to greater health disparities and why high-level action is needed to address this system and structural obstacle.
• Truth in Numbers: Examining how race and ethnicity classification in health care settings are a barrier to equitable healthcare and why collaboration across the industry will help drive transformation.

Panelists and speakers included: Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott, Drexel University; Maimah Karmo, The Tigerlily Foundation; Dr. Margarette Shegog, Northern California Family Medicine Residency; Ritchie Johnson, The Chris ‘CJ’ Johnson Foundation; Dr. Kim Rhoads, UCSF; Dana Dornsife, Lazarex Cancer Foundation; Dr. John Whyte, WebMD; Dr. Chip Petricoin,, George Mason University; Alicia Staley, Medidata; Dr. Tracey Thomas, Molecular Biologist; and Dr. Marya Shegog, Lazarex Cancer Foundation.

Lazarex Disruptor Awards were also presented to Dr. Loretta Jemmott, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN VP, Health & Health Equity, Drexel University and Craig Melvin, News Anchor, TODAY; Co-Host, 3rd Hour TODAY; Anchor, MSNBC’s Craig Melvin Reports, for their work in building trust and awareness about cancer care in their respective fields and platforms. 

Special guests this year included, Glenn Ellis, Health writer and educator and expert on Health Equity; and author Carmen Bogan.  

To view the event, watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/iE0omamjNTQ and Facebook   https://fb.watch/6958y5FP-3/ 

INTERVIEWS: 

Dana Dornsife is CEO and Founder of Lazarex Cancer Foundation, a nationwide non-profit organization she founded in 2006. The unique mission of Lazarex is to improve the outcome of cancer care, giving hope, dignity and life to advanced stage cancer patients and the medically underserved by providing assistance with costs for FDA clinical trial participation, identification of clinical trial options, community outreach and engagement. Dana recently expanded the mission at Lazarex to bring transformational change to the process of clinical trial enrollment, retention, minority participation and equitable access with IMPACT (IMproving Patient Access to Cancer Clinical Trials).

**Patients are also available for interviews.**

About Lazarex Cancer Foundation

The unique mission of Lazarex is to improve the outcome of cancer care—giving hope, dignity, and life to advanced stage cancer patients and the medically underserved by helping with costs for FDA clinical trial participation, identification of clinical trial options, community outreach and engagement. In 15 years Lazarex has assisted over 6,000 patients. Learn more at www.Lazarex.org. Follow us @LazarexCF. 

About Medidata

Medidata is leading the digital transformation of life sciences, creating hope for millions of patients. Medidata helps generate the evidence and insights to help pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and diagnostics companies, and academic researchers accelerate value, minimize risk, and optimize outcomes. More than one million registered users across 1,700+ customers and partners access the world’s most-used platform for clinical development, commercial, and real-world data.

Medidata, a Dassault Systèmes company, is headquartered in New York City and has offices around the world to meet the needs of its customers. Discover more at www.medidata.com and follow us @Medidata.