Summer Series of Impact: Volume 7

In this week’s issue, we outline the transformative difference YOU have helped to create for patients, families, and healthcare professionals through Golf Fights Cancer's most most fundamental Priority of Giving, Treatment Access.

Treatment Access

Over the last two volumes of the Summer Series, you have learned about $2 Million in critical investments made towards cancer research since the founding of Golf Fights Cancer. Unfortunately, research has shown that persistent disparities in rates of cancer screenings, health education, and barriers to care can nullify treatment advancements for the most vulnerable populations.

From the moment of diagnosis, social determinants of health that are beyond a patient’s control — including race, ethnicity, income level, zip code, and language — can create financial and clinical barriers to cancer care. These disparities play a significant role in a patient's chance of survival! Beginning in 2016, Golf Fights Cancer identified this emergent issue as high priority and has since invested nearing $1 Million in staffing and programs providing community-based interventions to reduce disparities in cancer screenings, treatment access, and health outcomes.

Highlighted Investments:

Cape Cod Healthcare: Funding for an inaugural Clinical Trials Program at the Reilly Family Oncology Research Center to build expanded access to research and clinical trials for elderly and vulnerable patients living on Cape Cod and the Islands.

Mass General Cancer Center at Newton-Wellesley Hospital: Three year funding for an additional Oncology Nurse Navigator and Oncology Social Worker with the goal of providing exemplary patient care extending beyond the support of individuals within its walls to the health needs of the community at large.

Mass General Hospital – Chelsea Health Center: Funding for a Cancer Patient Navigator position designed to improve access to cancer prevention and treatment in a multiethnic community where patients often need help in navigating their healthcare journey.

"We are truly grateful for the generous, ongoing support that Golf Fights Cancer has provided for our Cancer Navigation Program. Because of your gift, MGH-Chelsea continues to be able to maintain a dedicated Cancer Navigator. This means that vulnerable patients in Chelsea and the surrounding communities can get the help they need with life-saving screenings and necessary follow-up care when they are diagnosed with cancer. The important cancer navigation work you launched with your initial grant in 2016 has become a model we are working to replicate in other MGH Community Health Centers."

~ Dr. Dean C. Xerras, Medical Director, MGH - Chelsea Health Center

(Pictured above, a Mass General Patient Navigator connects with a patient during a visit)

Learn more about our grant history.

Dr. Dean C. Xerras

Dr. Dean Xerras has devoted his career to community medicine, with the hope of reducing disparities in health care delivery among vulnerable patient populations. Long before the impact of social determinants of health on treatment access and outcomes was recognized as a national health crisis, he had embedded himself in the fabric of the Chelsea, MA community, determined to make a difference.

Dr. Xerras currently practices general internal medicine at MGH - Chelsea Health Center, where he has also served as its Medical Director since 2009. Once a thriving industrial center, today Chelsea is one of the most densely populated cities in the nation, with more than 35,000 residents living in two square miles. It’s also one of the poorest, with a per capita income of $24,000. To drive systemic change for the most vulnerable in the community where his patients live and work, Dr. Xerras has served on the Board of Health in Chelsea since 2006.

Particularly concerned about the growing rates of late-stage cancer diagnoses and reduced cancer screening participation in Chelsea, Dr. Xerras began collaborating with the team from Golf Fights Cancer, establishing a Cancer Navigation Program at the MGH - Chelsea Heath Center in 2016.

Because of Dr. Xerras' determination and commitment, the Cancer Navigation Program has been truly life-saving, changing the trajectory of cancer for the most vulnerable patients and families.

Brian Oates and Cheryl McGuire (center) present the team at MGH - Chelsea Health Center with the initial funding for their newly formed Cancer Navigation Program in 2016. Dr. Dean Xerras is pictured second from the left.

Palliative Care

Join us next week for Volume 8 in the series to learn more about the critical impact Golf Fights Cancer is making through our investment in program development and expansion, increasing access to Palliative Care for patients, caregivers and families.