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Educational
Tool Provides New Collaboration Between Doctor, Patient
Free
Cancer Guide Available at 6,000 Medical Offices Around the Country
(Kansas City) Doctors across the country
have an invaluable new weapon in the war against cancer. For the first
time ever, a direct-to-patient educational tool known as Patient Resource
is forging a never before seen collaboration between physician and
patient.
Formally
titled
Patient Resource: A Cancer Treatment and Facilities Guide for Patients
and Their Families, this 128 page publication is
available free of charge at 6,000 doctor’s offices and oncology
clinics across the country.
Under
the editorial guidance of nationally renown oncologist and John’s Hopkins associate
Charles Balch, M.D., the new Patient Resource cancer guide is creating
order out of chaos for cancer patients filled with uncertainty.
“This
is the first time in my career as an oncologist that cancer patients can
walk away from a doctor’s appointment fully armed with such
must-have information,” says Balch. “This guide is
cancer’s equivalent to the World Book Encyclopedia.”
Further,
added Balch, this is the first time doctors have had access to such
meaningful patient educational tools at absolutely no cost. The 2007
edition of Patient Resource had an initial press run of 500,000 copies.
According
to Balch, often the shock of a cancer diagnosis leaves patients
bewildered and numb, unable to decide where to go, who to see, or what to
consider when charting their course for treatment and cure. This new
cancer resource contains everything imaginable from cover to cover. It
was designed from a cancer patient’s viewpoint – and
that’s exactly what its founder, whose own family was ravaged by
the disease, wanted.
“Nobody
should go through what my family went through,” says Patient
Resource Founder Linette Atwood. “From the time my husband was
first diagnosed with leukemia, we didn’t know where to turn or what
to do next. That was a terrifying time and we wasted many months and
years researching what we could have learned in hours by accessing
Patient Resource.”
Ultimately,
Atwood’s husband, father and sister lost their lives to cancer. But
she believes they might have had a fighting chance if they had been armed
with the resources available in this new cancer directory. Later, both
Linette and her mother were also diagnosed with breast cancer, and both
are fortunate to call themselves survivors.
Today,
millions of men, women and children are battling cancer. Growing numbers
of these are following a national trend in self-advocacy, determined to
find the cancer resources that best serve their needs. The new Patient
Resource cancer guide is unlike any other information resource available
to cancer patients today. It’s considered to be the only
single-source, user-friendly comprehensive treatment guide available to
those in need.
“I
truly believe that an informed and educated cancer patient will find a
way to get the best care…..and live better and longer,” says
Patient Resource Medical Editor Charles Balch, M.D.
In
a departure from less informative cancer material, Patient Resource
provides a heavy dose of hope and inspiration through survivor stories.
The publication features nearly a dozen survivor stories from a wide
spectrum of cancers, including liver, lymphoma, breast, brain, childhood
cancer and others.
The
guide also features comprehensive directory and contact information for
medical specialists, treatments, clinics, terminology and clinical
trials. It even provides patients with tips for navigating the insurance
maze and explains the importance of second and third opinions.
The
new Patient Resource guide is available to patients at their local
oncology office or cancer clinic nationwide. It can also be ordered
online at www.patientresource.net.</
# # #
For more information or to schedule an
interview, please email Betsy Donnelly at BDonnelly@PatientResource.net
or call 913.236.7757.
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