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SPRING 2010 |
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h e a l t h p r o m o t i o n
CBS Physician named province’s top screener for
cervical cancer
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Jonathan Carpenter Photo |
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Dr. Roxanne Cooper |
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Dr. Roxanne Cooper, a general practitioner
at the Long Pond Medical Clinic, was the province’s leading screener, testing 974 patients in 2009.
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By Jonathan Carpenter |
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In conjunction with International
Women’s Day on March 8, 2010, the Cervical Screening Initiatives
program paid tribute to the more than 130 physicians and nurses in
the province who eached screened more than 200 women for cervical cancer in
2009.
Dr. Roxanne Cooper, a general practitioner
at the Long Pond Medical Clinic, was the province’s leading screener
after testing 974 patients in 2009. She was also the province’s top
screener in 2008, screening 868 women for cervical cancer. Dr. Cooper
established her practice in her home town of Conception Bay South in
2007 after serving as a military physician for six years.
“When I came home and I was starting my
practice, I was approached by Cervical Screening Initiatives. Being on
the regional advisory committee, I started to see the numbers and how
desperate the need was. So I decided right off the top I would dedicate
a quarter of my clinical time for cervical screening. I just thought
this is something that I can do, that I enjoy and that also makes a bit
of a difference,” says Dr. Cooper.
The Cervical Screening Initiatives program
is an organized approach to cervical screening aimed at educating the
public and increasing participation rates. In Newfoundland and Labrador,
about 85,000 women are screened annually and about 8,000 will have an
abnormal Pap test each year. Unfortunately, that leaves about 140,000
women who are not screened.
“I think Newfoundland and Labrador does an
excellent job in promoting cervical screening. Still, there is a very
high demand on primary care in the province and family practice is still
overburdened. The patients-per-physician ratio is also very high and the
number of patients with multiple illnesses tends to take up a lot of the
consultation time. Sometimes their Pap test can get pushed back on the
priority scale,” Dr. Cooper explains.
“Getting an annual Pap can also become
less of a priority for young mothers who are not taking birth control
and for women past the child bearing stage. For others, getting a Pap
test from a family doctor who they consider a friend can make them a
little uncomfortable. That applies to male and female physicians. Their
patients may think they are wonderful doctors, but sometimes they are
more comfortable on an eye-to-eye level and they prefer that sense of
anonymity when they get their Pap,” she adds.
Dr. Cooper offers a cervical screening
walk-in clinic for her patients and the general public on Thursday
afternoons and she travels to other communities to assist colleagues who
have organized full-day screening clinics. Patients are managed by a
call-back system and scheduling, chart audits, data recording and sample
collection is streamlined. She also uses the occasion to initiate
discussions about sexually transmitted disease and healthy sexual
activity, and blood work is provided on site.
“I do a quick questionnaire ahead of time
so I know where to focus my examination and my questions. We try to do
it fairly quickly so they don’t have to wait long. I use lighted
disposable speculums, flannel sheets and we have beach scenes on the
ceiling to make the experience less stressful,” says Dr. Cooper.
“Since we started it’s just been so
positive and so many ladies have just been so appreciative that there’s
no way I can stop offering the service now. I’ll work harder this year
to see if we can get the number up to 1,000.”
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