Health & Wellness
Healthbeat
Professors to study effects of
breakfast cuts in Guilford County
For students in Guilford County, having access
to universal-free school breakfasts has allowed
school children to eat nutritional and substantive
meals that they may otherwise have gone without.
Due to rising food costs and declining revenues,
the Guilford County Schools have had to discontin
ue the universal-free breakfast program at several
schools this year. The affected schools will contin
ue to offer free and reduced-priced breakfasts for
children from low-income families but will no
longer offer free breakfasts to other children, a
move that could lead to students missing what
many say is the most important meal of the day.
To that end, two professors at The University of
North Carolina at Greensboro, Dr. Lauren
Haldeman, associate professor of nutrition, and Dr.
David Ribar, professor of economics, have received
a $250,000 grant from the U.S Department of
Agriculture's Food Assistance and Nutrition
Research Program to study the budgetary, academ
ic and health effects of a reduction in the number of
Guilford County schools offering universal-free
breakfasts.
Dr. Gongshu Zhang, chief accountability and
research officer of the Guilford County Schools, is
also a project investigator for the grant.
Ribar and Zhang will study participation data,
attendance records and test scores from the schools.
As part of the research, Haldeman will meet
with parents to assess their views about nutrition, in
particular breakfast. "Parents play a huge role in
attitudes toward breakfast," she notes. "Parents are
nutritional role models for their children."
School bus safety takes center
stage this week across state
Governor Mike Easley has proclaimed October
20-24 as Watch Out for the Child week to remind
drivers that they must stop when a school bus' stop
sign arm is extended. Each school day, more than
Secretar^Beatty
2,300 drivers violate
North Carolina's school
bus stop arm law.
In support of Watch
Out for the Child week
the State Highway Patrol
will be aggressively
enforcing stop arm vio
lations and other traffic
violations in and around
school zones. The Patrol
expects Operation Stop
Ann will decrease viola
tions and reduce school
bus collisions.
Across the state,
troopers will be working
school zones and others
wui DC iouowing cne ouses. iroopers win oe anv
| ing marked and unmarked patrol cars during the I
operation.
Passing a stopped school bus is a Class 2 misde
meanor. If convicted, a person will receive five
driving points on their driver's license and is sub
ject to fines up to $200.
"We must ensure our children's safety as they
travel to and from school," said Bryan Beatty, sec
retary of the Department of Crime Control and
Public Safety. "A child's life should never be put in
danger just to save a minute or two during a daily
commute. That's why we're going to make sure
people know the law as well as the consequences of
breaking it."
For further information concerning school bus
safety visit the Department of Public Instruction's
school bus safety web site at
http://www.ncbussafety.org/.
Williams joins Atala at
Wake's Regenerative Medicine
David F. Williams, a world-renowned expert in
tissue engineering and medical devices, has joined
the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative
Medicine as professor and director of international
affairs
Williams' role is to help establish collaborations
with universities, medical centers and researchers
from around the world with the goal of advancing
the science of regenerative medicine to help
patients who need replacement organs or tissue. He
will work to establish exchange programs with sci
entists and students as well as identify potential
joint ventures and collaborations.
"We are excited to have David Williams as a
member of our faculty," said Anthony Atala, MX>.,
director of the institute. "His international focus, as
well as his own reputation as a leader in this field,
will help us establish international collaborations I
with the potential to speed scientific development
and make advances in regenerative medicine avail
able to patients around the world."
Williams was trained as a materials scientist and
j has 40 years of experience in the fields of medical
,vices and tissue engineering at the University of
verpool, England. His roles there included direct
the United Kingdom Centre for Tissue
ig. He also wrote reports for the British
it on issues surrounding the international
jization of medical technology.
,?jams is editor-in-chief of Biomaterrals, the
's leading journal in this field, and has pub
almost 400 scientific papers and written or
35 books. He received the prestigious
Award of the U.S. Society for
aials in 2007. He is a fellow of the Royal
iy of Engineering, which honors the United
's most distinguished engineers.
Rep. Womble pushes for victims
of eugenics to get compensation
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
State Rep. Larry Womble
will lead a meeting today in
Womble
n
Kaleigh to
explore the
possibili
ties of the
state pro
v i d i n g
compensa
tion for the
victims of
a notorious
eugenics
program
that
forcibly sterilized thousands of
people.
The public meeting of the
House Select Committee on
Compensation for Victims of
the Eugenics Sterilization
Program will begin at 1 p.m. at
the Legislative Building.
Womble co-chairs the com
mittee with Rep. Ron Sutton
(D-Robeson). Speaker of the
House of Representatives Joe
Hackney established the
Fll? Photos
Eugenics survivors speak at a forum last year at Winston-Salem State University.
Committee and appointed
members of the House of
Representatives to study pro
posals to compensate persons
who, as a result of the
Eugenics sterilization program
in this State, were sterilized
between the years 1929 and
1975.
Womble has been at the
forefront of the issue for sever
al years. His efforts won a for
mal apology for victims from
Gov. Mike Easley.
Today's meeting session
wilT be devoted to hearing 5
first-hand accounts of the
experiences of several of the
surviving victims of the State
Eugenics Sterilization
Program.
Raking It in for a Good Cause
PRNcwsFoCo/Breast Cancer Network of Strength. Steve Becker/Beckermedia.com
The 30th Anniversary Gala of Chicago-based Breast Cancer Network of Strength recently
raised $900j000 to provide emotional relief to those affected by breast cancer. Among the high
profiles on hand for the event were agency CEO Margaret C. Kirk (from left) breast cancer sur
vivor Robin Roberts of ABC's Good Morning America; Dreamworks Picture's Jeffrey
Katzenberg; Gala Chair Gloria Alvarez and the organization's Board President Pat Harris.
UNC research suggests no need to repeat
colonoscopy until 5 years after first screening
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Among people who have had an
initial colonoscopy that found no
polyps, a possible sign of cancer, the
risk of developing colorectal cancer
within five years is extremely low, a
new study has found.
"For that reason, once someone
has had a negative initial
colonoscopy, there is no need for that
person to have another colonoscopy
sooner than five years after that
screening," said Dr. David F.
senior author of the study, published in the Sept.
18, 2008, issue of The New England
Dr. Ransohoff
Journal of Medicine. The lead author is
Thomas F. Imperiale, M.D., of Indiana
University, with whom Ransohoff has
collaborated on several colonoscopy
studies.
Ransohoff, also a member of UNC's
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer
Center, said the latest study confirms
what most gastroenterologists already
believed, but it is the first large, formal
study to confirm this conclusion. The
report is also an important step to deter
Ransohoff, a professor in the University ot North
Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and
mine the appropriate interval tor rescreening, he
said.
Advocacy 101
In The People's Clinic articles,
we often discuss the importance of
advocating for yourself, your fam
ily and your community - for bet
ter health care to improve other
personal issues, or to improve
your community as a whole. In
order to know how to advocate
though, we must know what advo
cacy is and how we can advocate
during our everyday lives.
What is advocacy?
According to the American
Public Health Association
(APHA), an advocate is someone
who supports, defends and argues
for a cause; to advocate is to act in
support of a particular issue or
cause. Advocates can be individ
ual persons, non-profit groups, or
other organizations; anyone can be
an advocate.
How can I advocate for myself?
An essential first step to being
able to advocate for yourself or
your family's health is to become
more knowledgeable. For exam
ple. if you have been diagnosed
with a particular type of cancer,
you should try to gather informa
tion on that cancer from many dif
ferent sources, like another health
care provider, print information
such as The People's Clinic, and
websites like the American Cancer
Society or National Cancer
Institute. It is important to remem
ber that not all information we
may find on the internet or other
sources is always 100 percent cor
rect. so it is also essential to have a
health care provider that you trust.
Having reliable information
can allow you to have a more
meaningful conversation with
your health care provider in which
you are better able to discuss your
care. It is also important to know
that, as a patient, you (or a loved
one) are in charge of your care,
and you have the right to have
your questions answered, seek a
See Advocacy on A 13
'Navigators'
picked for ?
esteemed
health program ?
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Robin Lewis and Mary
Flowers - patient navigators
at the Comprehensive Cancer
Center "of Wake Forest
University Baptist Medical
Center - have been accepted
to the Harold P. Freeman
Patient Navigation Institute
and Certification Program in
New York.
The only certification
program of its kind, the train
ing will
take
place in
New
York
City
from
Nov. 5 -
7 and
Twill pro
v i d e
practical,
research
Lewis
based information designed
to help participants under
stand how to tailor patient
navigation programs to meet
their communities' specific
needs. Led by the foremost
expert in the field of patient
navigation, the program
admits only a select few from
a pool of applicants from
cancer centers, across the
United States.
The concept of patient
navigators was pioneered in
1990 by Dr. Harold P.
Freeman. According to the
institute's Web site, the "pur
pose of patient navigation is
to eliminate barriers to time
ly diagnosis and treatment of
cancer. The most important
role of patient navigation is
to assure that any patient
with a suspicious finding
will receive timely diagnosis
and treatment."
The model taught at the
institute addresses outreach
efforts but focuses on the
"critical window between an
initial cancer finding and the
resolution of that finding
through timely diagnosis and
treatment."
Lewis and Flowers are
breast care patient navigators
who work in the Breast Care
Center.
The Freeman Institute
was established in June 2007
by The Ralph Lauren Centef
for Cancer Care and
Prevention Made possible
by a generous $2.5 million
leadership grant from the
Amgen Foundation, the insti
tute was established to pro
vide training to individuals
associated with organizations
which may develop or
expand patient navigation
programs throughout the
country and across the world.