UAB Women in Medicine: Claudia Hardy

Claudia Hardy is the program director for the Deep South Network, a National Cancer Institute Community Network Program Center grant awarded to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center. The mission of the Deep South Network is to eliminate cancer health disparities among underserved minorities in rural and urban areas across Alabama and Mississippi.

What responsibilities do you have in your position? What’s the day-to-day like? 
I’m a program director in the Cancer Center for community outreach. A lot of people only know me for the Deep South Network, but I do more than that! People don’t realize the complexity of things I’m responsible for. I have managed the Deep South Network for 15 years and serve as a communication liaison and work with investigators and scientists to develop randomized trials and qualitative research products, in addition to developing culturally appropriate outreach efforts.
 

What’s your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of this job is the variety. It allows me to stay connected with real issues and helps me understand how to better work with researchers and scientists as they conduct research.

Were there any parts of getting to this point in your career that were difficult for you?
I never knew for certain at 18 what I wanted to do. My undergrad is in communications and my Master’s is in Public Administration. This job is tailor-made for me. Earning my undergrad degree was tough. I had a professor who told me I’d have a difficult time in my field, so I’m always up for a challenge. He retired last year and invited me to his retirement party. I got to tell him that I made a liar out of him, and he said I made him proud.

Do you have a hard time balancing work and personal life? How do you manage that?
I’m much better than where I was. Work will always be there. I’ve been here for 16 years. I travel to places and have to work some evenings and Saturdays. I’ve made relationships with vulnerable people that bleed into my personal life that I hold near my heart, particularly with minorities, where trust is not always automatic. These work relationships have become personal. But I think I’ve become much better at balancing. I just have to say to myself sometimes, “Hey, I’m off the clock!”

What advice do you have for young women trying to choose a career?
I’m always encouraging young women in particular to know what it is they want to do and it will pay off if you do work you’re called to do. It makes the tough times easier because you know in your heart this is what you’re meant to do.

Heading South: Colorectal Cancer Rates Decrease, But Not Much

A new study this week revealed that fewer people are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and the number of people dying from the disease is decreasing as well. This is due in large part to an increase in the number of people getting screened, as well as reducing or eliminating risk factors such as smoking and obesity.

The news for us in the South, however, is not quite as good. The highest rates of colorectal cancer deaths are in the South and Appalachia. While death rates fell by as much as 33 percent in several Northeastern states, the decrease was only 15 percent or less in six Southern states, including Alabama.

Why is this the case? There are several reasons. Southern states are generally poorer than Northern states, and they tend to have more residents without health insurance who may forgo the regular screening that experts recommend for people over age 50. Southerners are also more likely to be obese and to smoke. Alabama is actually the second fattest state in the nation, with a 32.3 percent obesity level. Of the 10 states with the highest obesity rates, nine are in the South.

The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center is committed to addressing disparities such as these. Our location in the heart of the Deep South makes us a natural leader in developing research and delivery programs to understand and eliminate cancer health disparities. Our Deep South Network for Cancer Control has been quite active and successful in making progress in these arena among minority populations. We have recently begun expanding our research efforts in obesity to better understand the connection between nutrition and cancer. This work is being led by world-renowned nutrition scientist Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, Ph.D, who joined the Cancer Center in 2010.

Rest assured that our scientists are working every day toward our goal of eliminating cancer as a public health problem. I truly believe that this will soon be a reality.

-Ed Partridge, M.D.

Recognizing Differences

 

Deep South Network team members gather in Birmingham
to discuss cancer disparities.

As we recognize National Minority Cancer Awareness Week this week, I am reminded that one of the failures of our nation and current health-care system is the unequal delivery of our medical discoveries to all segments of the population. While new discoveries and research are helping us make a difference in the fight against cancer, we must also be aware that delivering these discoveries differently causes cancer health disparities. We must remember that minorities suffer a disproportionate share of the cancer burden, as do segments of the population that are less educated, have lower income and/or no health insurance.

Cancer death rates in African Americans and other minority populations are often substantially higher. Reasons for this are fairly clear, as these populations are less likely to get age-appropriate cancer screenings, most likely to engage in activities that increase risk (such as tobacco use, unhealthy eating or lack of physical activity) and are less likely to get high-quality treatment when cancer is diagnosed. Poverty, low education and lack of insurance contribute substantially to these differences.

The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center has a long history of working in communities and in the laboratory to understand and eventually eliminate cancer disparities. To do so requires partnerships with communities to assist them in helping to increase screening rates and physical activity and encourage healthy eating.

We have major community-based programs in the Mississippi Delta, the Alabama Black Belt and inner-city Birmingham to do just that. Through our Deep South Network for Cancer Control, we have already demonstrated that these partnerships can close the gap in screenings. Building trust, relationships and infrastructure in these communities allows us to effectively export cancer knowledge.

The Cancer Center serves a region of the country with a large African-American population and a rapidly growing Hispanic population. Because of this, we are determined to eliminate cancer disparities in Alabama and beyond.

-Ed Partridge, M.D.