-: So my name is Jeannine Salamone.
I am a director at the
American Society of Clinical Oncology,
which is the world's leading professional society
that represents oncology professionals
and physicians who treat people with cancer.
And I manage our patient advocate programs,
so that's in our Communications
and Patient Information Department at ASCO.
So, it's very important that I meet
with and network with advocates and hear them
and hear what their issues are, their concerns are
and what we can do for them as a society.
So a lot of those interactions take place
at our educational and scientific meetings
that take place throughout the year.
And these meetings are opportunities
for them to come and learn the latest science
and the research in cancer.
It's an opportunity for them to build their knowledge,
build their education,
and also network with other oncology professionals.
I'm in the Communications and Patient Information Department
at ASCO and I direct our patient advocate programs.
So for example, right now we have several
meetings coming up in January and February.
We have a Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium,
a Genitourinary Cancer Symposium,
Quality Care in oncology Symposium,
Cancer Survivorship Symp, there's lots of meetings
that take place throughout the year.
And so we try to get as many advocates, patient advocates,
to attend as possible.
And so we want them to be aware of the fact
that they need to register for the meeting, make plans.
That's reserving your hotel,
making your travel arrangements.
And then a lot of times our questions
surround scholarships.
So this program I started in 2007
is our patient advocate scholarship program.
It's very clear that attending these meetings
is very expensive.
And even if you are employed by a nonprofit association
or organization, that's still a lot of money for them
to spend to get you there.
But a lot of those folks also work on their own.
They're working with researchers on cancer research,
on clinical trial design.
And so they pay their own way.
We want them there, but they have to get themselves there.
So we started this scholarship program in 2007,
and to date have awarded about two million dollars
to advocates to get to our meetings.