janice phillips, ph.d. - your health is your wealth
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photo by steed media service
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Nurse Researcher, University of Chicago Medical Center
Janice Phillips, Ph.D., a nurse researcher with the University of Chicago Medical Center, is taking extreme measures in order to help fight the devastating affects that breast cancer has on a great number of black women in the Chicago area. Phillips helps facilitate nursing research and evidence-based practice when addressing breast cancer survival factors related to screenings and early detection among African American women.
“The interesting thing about breast cancer is that we really don’t know what causes it,” she says. “We focus a lot of our attention, and rightfully so, on early detection, which means finding the breast cancer even before there are obvious signs or symptoms of it. [The University of Chicago Medical Center has] been stressing to get people to take action [on] their own health issues and then linking them to the right services.”
There are a high number of uninsured, minority women in Chicago that don’t have access to high quality breast cancer services and state-of-the-art treatment. Phillips’ mission is to make certain any woman who’s diagnosed with breast cancer has access to the best possible diagnostics and care.
“What we’re seeing now in Chicago is that African American women in particular have a 68 percent higher mortality rate from breast cancer when compared to their white counterparts,” she says. “Trying to tease out what those complex factors are and then trying to coordinate and communicate with all of our major medical institutions to see what role can they play in terms of making sure that women have access to this kind of care, is just a very important piece [in the fight].” -terry shropshire
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