This week on Health Matters, Tarah Schwartz and Caroline White explore why the Skills and Simulations initiative helps patient care. Dr. Atul Verman discusses joining the MUHC to lead the Department of Cardiology. Dr. Joyce Pickering remembers the legacy of Dr. Sylvia Cruess who passed away this week at the age of 92. And Ilana Cohen shares her life-changing meeting with Dr. Lucy Gilbert and how her harrowing health care journey inspired her to give back to the DOvEE Project.
Cette semaine à Questions de santé, Tarah Schwartz et Caroline White discutent de la façon dont l’initiative Amélioration des compétences et simulations contribue à améliorer les soins aux patients. Le Dr Atul Verman se joint à l’équipe du CUSM pour diriger le département de cardiologie. La Dre Joyce Pickering rappelle l’héritage de la Dre Sylvia Cruess, qui est décédée cette semaine à l’âge de 92 ans. Et Ilana Cohen raconte sa rencontre déterminante avec la Dre Lucy Gilbert et pourquoi son parcours difficile dans le système de soins de santé l’a incitée à faire un don au projet DOvEE.
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This week on Health Matters, Tarah Schwartz and Caroline White explore why the Skills and Simulations initiative helps patient care. Dr. Atul Verman discusses joining the MUHC to lead the Department of Cardiology. Dr. Joyce Pickering remembers the legacy of Dr. Sylvia Cruess who passed away this week at the age of 92. And Ilana Cohen shares her life-changing meeting with Dr. Lucy Gilbert and how her harrowing health care journey inspired her to give back to the DOvEE Project.
Cette semaine à Questions de santé, Tarah Schwartz et Caroline White discutent de la façon dont l’initiative Amélioration des compétences et simulations contribue à améliorer les soins aux patients. Le Dr Atul Verman se joint à l’équipe du CUSM pour diriger le département de cardiologie. La Dre Joyce Pickering rappelle l’héritage de la Dre Sylvia Cruess, qui est décédée cette semaine à l’âge de 92 ans. Et Ilana Cohen raconte sa rencontre déterminante avec la Dre Lucy Gilbert et pourquoi son parcours difficile dans le système de soins de santé l’a incitée à faire un don au projet DOvEE.
Follow us on social media | Suivez-nous sur les médias sociaux
Facebook | Linkedin | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube
Hello there. Thank you for joining us. I'm Tarah Schwartz and this is Health Matters on CJAD 800. On today's show, recruiting top talent from around the world is a significant way for the MUHC to ensure excellence in patient care, the kind of care we all want. Plus, we talk about the legacy of the extraordinary Dr. Sylvia Cruess, a trailblazer in Montreal, and Canada. First though, health care professionals require a lot of continuing education to learn about new equipment, new procedures and protocol and so much more. It's really important for health care workers to have the latest training and information available to them. That became especially clear during the COVID 19 pandemic as safety protocols were put in place to make sure they didn't get sick. But how does that training happen? And what is the best way to make sure health care teams are fully prepared for every scenario? Caroline White is a Simulation Specialist Advisor and Interim Associate Director of Education at the MUHC. Thanks so much for being with us.
Caroline White:Thank you for having me, Tara.
Tarah Schwartz:So let's begin with how do you define the area of skills and simulation?
Caroline White:Simulation is a method of ongoing continuous education that all health care professionals engage in. And this is done to improve, to develop techniques that when we're working with patients, but it's also a way for the interprofessional team to come together. So health care workers from the different professions to train together on complex patient case scenarios.
Tarah Schwartz:Skills and Simulation is obviously a really broad umbrella group. Can you give us some examples of what kind of skills and simulation; what kind of training health care workers would go through?
Caroline White:Absolutely. So you're right, it is quite a broad umbrella. And under that umbrella, we do have different types of equipment, our health care professionals will work with different equipment. For example, we have mannequins that look like real patients, and they're able to reproduce a lot of human physiology. So they may have heart sounds, lung sounds, they may be able to speak, we have virtual-reality. So virtual reality is more in terms of online or video game simulations, where they can perform surgery using the game. There's different methods of performing skills. So we may have task trainers, a task trainer is something where our health care professionals will perform a technique using a piece of equipment. So they may learn how to apply oxygen, they may insert IVs, or a Foley catheter into a patient's bladder, but it's all done on mannequins. And it's often done as a team; many professionals working together with the
Tarah Schwartz:I've seen these mannequins before that the equipment. health care workers train on and it's not an understatement to say how human they are. I think I even saw once that the mannequins can cry. It almost seems like they feel things It must be really extraordinary to work with them.
Caroline White:It really helps bring the reality when we're training health care professionals, because they are so human like. Not only do they look like a patient, but as you said, they can cry. They can speak so they're preprogrammed to be able to respond when they're asked questions. They can moan if they're in pain, and that really helps the health care professional to apply their communication skills, but to also assess the patient properly so that they can take care of the patient. They can manage the patient's care in their training.
Tarah Schwartz:Yeah, it really is incredible to watch. We're speaking with Caroline White, and we're talking about ensuring health care professionals get access to continued education. How quickly does medical training change?
Caroline White:Medical education is an ongoing evolution. We learn new things every day. The technology boom in health care over the last 10 to 15 years has been huge. We're using a lot more technology at the bedside with our patients. We know a lot more about different comorbidities, so different illnesses that patients may have. So it's really important that health care professional, continuously upgrade their knowledge and their skills to be able to cope with these changes. And COVID was a perfect example of that.
Tarah Schwartz:Yeah, absolutely-a perfect example of it. And aside from helping them access new skills and new training, this is also about helping the patients, right? It's also about making sure that they are doing their job to the best of their ability for themselves and their patients.
Caroline White:At the end of the day, it's always about ensuring patient safety. The better prepared our staff is to provide care to the patients, the better outcomes are expected. We anticipate that patients will be taken care of at a much higher level, patient outcomes should be much better, because our staff is prepared to handle anything that may come their way.
Tarah Schwartz:Caroline White is a Simulation Specialist Advisor. Caroline, what is it like to be a part of simulation training? It must be a very rewarding job; talk a little bit about that.
Caroline White:Simulation training is a lot of fun. The health care workers get to work together. They're talking and exploring new ideas. They're sharing their knowledge. People typically enjoy engaging in simulation because they always take something away, that they can apply immediately. So what they've learned; they can put into practice with their patients immediately. So it's quite rewarding for those that participate in simulation activities as learners. And we have a high demand, we have a lot of people that are asking for courses that want to improve their knowledge and have that continuous improvement. So people really enjoy simulation.
Tarah Schwartz:I really like that you mentioned how much health care professionals work together when they're doing some of these training exercises. Because on one of my hospital tours, I got to see one of them happening live. And it was a roomful of health care professionals. And it was really so impressive to see them working together, almost like a dance. It was taken so seriously. And I felt like I was watching them work on a real patient.
Caroline White:They oftentimes forget that they're working with a mannequin. They'll be in the room, there'll be engaged in the scenario. So we'll provide them with the name of a patient, that condition and what the patient has experienced in the hospital over the last few days. So they're put into a simulated case. And they need to work together. Because the reality is, we do work together for a patient. We don't do this in silos. So it only makes sense that our health care workers should also be training together so that interprofessional knowledge sharing, learning to communicate really effectively to ensure our patients safety; that's number one. It's number one to ensuring that our patients have the best outcome.
Tarah Schwartz:The MUHC Foundation is fundraising to build a Skills and Simulation Centre for the MUHC, which I think is so important. And as you mentioned, we've just talked about all the reasons why it is important. Let's talk about philanthropy, to help fundraise for initiatives like Skills and Simulation because we often think about fundraising for cancer research, fundraising for specific equipment. But this is a really interesting and important aspect of what we're fundraising for. So talk about the impact of philanthropy on this centre.
Caroline White:I think a lot of people don't realize that the education of a health care professional doesn't end when they've received their degree. This is a continuous lifelong process. So without this simulation center being available, without this equipment, without a place to go on site to practice; we're not necessarily supporting our healthcare workers the way we would like to. That's why having a center at the MUHC is so important. During COVID, we were able to spring into action as soon as COVID occurred here in Montreal in March of 2020. And we were literally training around the clock to ensure that health care professionals at the MUHC were prepared to handle the pandemic, the crisis. It makes a massive difference on the care that a patient receives. And that's something that we don't usually see as a user, or as a patient, or as a family member. But this is all happening in the background. This is all happening in our institution.
Tarah Schwartz:Caroline White is a Simulation Specialist Advisor and Interim Associate Director of Education at the MUHC. It's always a pleasure to talk to you Caroline. I feel like I learned a lot and I get really inspired about what you do. So thank you for coming on Health Matters.
Caroline White:Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.
Tarah Schwartz:Next up the MUHC recently appointed a new Director of Cardiology, we speak with him next. I'm Tarah Schwartz. Welcome back to Health Matters on CJAD 800. It is very important for the MUHC and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre to recruit top talent to the hospital. Our goal is to provide excellence in patient care, the kind of care every one of us wants for ourselves and for our loved ones. And that means recruiting different experts from different fields around the world to be part of a global hospital community right here in Montreal. A recent recruit to the MUHC, as the Director of the Division of Cardiology is Dr. Atul Verma. And he joins us now. Thank you for being with us. Dr. Verma.
Dr. Atul Verma:Thank you. It's a great pleasure.
Tarah Schwartz:So tell us a little bit about yourself. What inspired your career in cardiology?
Dr. Atul Verma:Very early on in my medical training, I really fell in love with the heart as an organ. The way it works, its complexity. And I think in cardiology, we not only have the ability to diagnose problems with the heart, but we also have the ability to fix a lot of these problems. And I think that's really what spurred my interest.
Tarah Schwartz:Oh, I love that, that you can fix it now. Where were you previously? How long have you been with the MUHC and tell us a little bit about where you're coming from?
Dr. Atul Verma:Yeah, so I'm new to the MUHC. I started in April of this year. So it's been a fantastic change. I love the MUHC, as well as the city of Montreal. I previously was at the University of Toronto, and I was based actually at a semi-academic institution, South Lake Regional Health Center, which was just north of the city.
Tarah Schwartz:So tell us a little bit more about what you have been doing since you arrived just a few months back just in April. How is your experience been so far as Director of Cardiology for the MUHC?
Dr. Atul Verma:I mean, obviously, it's been a great learning curve. But what I'm seeing very quickly here is the tremendous amount of cardiac expertise we have at the MUHC. In particular, in not only groundbreaking clinical care, but also in the research field. Being a very avid researcher myself, that was one of the key elements that drew me here.
Tarah Schwartz:So let's talk a little bit about that. You say that the Department of Cardiology encompasses so many areas of expertise. Can you break it down for us? Like when we think of a Department of Cardiology, the average person thinks heart just like what you said. But break it down for us talk to us a little bit about what's being done? Or what are the areas of a Department of Cardiology that you could help us to understand more?
Dr. Atul Verma:Sure. So they're basically about three or four key areas. So one big area is imaging. How do we image the heart to make diagnoses? And here we have absolutely world class cardiac MRI facilities; under the guidance of Dr. Matthias Friedrich, who was recruited originally from Germany. He's been doing some fantastic research and how to image the heart with MRI. The next big section is interventional cardiology. How can we minimally invasively either open up vessels or put in new valves, and some of the valve surgeries that our guys are doing now, minimally invasively are absolutely incredible. And then we have heart rhythm disorders, electrical disorders of the heart. And again, we've made some great strides in being able to move that forward in being able to cure arrhythmias in a minimally invasive way. And then finally obviously, the research element clinical trials, basic science research, and how to make that research available to people in Montreal and Quebec sooner. Rather than later.
Tarah Schwartz:That's a wonderful answer. I feel like I really heard a lot about the Department of Cardiology. Because we talk about the heart a lot in the show, but not sort of globally like that. So that's really interesting to hear you explain it that way. We're speaking with Dr. Atul Verma. He's the new Director of Cardiology at the MUHC. Again, you've only been here a few months, what are you most excited about as you begin as Director of Cardiology at the hospital?
Dr. Atul Verma:One thing that was very unusual is when I took over this role, there were four positions at the directorship level that were open, for me to hire new people into. And often when you walk into a new organization, you don't always get the chance to build a team right from the outset. But these hiring opportunities really gave me the chance to go out nationally and even internationally, to find the key people that we need to further build on the already great Division of Cardiology we have at the MUHC.
Tarah Schwartz:And we did talk about this subject in its entirety when we're talking about you coming into the MUHC. So why is it so important to have people from across the country, around the world when you're building a team of global experts like we have at the MUHC? Why is that important?
Dr. Atul Verma:Ultimately comes down to being able to provide the best care in the fastest way possible to our patients. So one thing I've found in doing research is that patients are very interested in new technologies, new ways of approaching cardiac care. When they're presented with the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial, often there are a lot of advantages for them, closer follow up, better care, higher levels of intervention that we haven't been able to do before. I think it's very, very exciting. And so we need to have a broad mind about where we can recruit the best and brightest in the world.
Tarah Schwartz:Dr. Atul Verma is the new Director of Cardiology at the MUHC. Dr. Verma, you mentioned that research is also a big part of your career. Do you have a particular project now that you're excited about that you can talk to us about?
Dr. Atul Verma:My principal interest is in doing clinical trials. So that means, being able to study interventions in people or populations. And right now, I'm looking at whether one of the procedures I do which is called ablation, which is used to treat arrhythmia problems in the heart. Whether ablation can allow us; if successful, to take patients off their medications, including blood thinners. Oftentimes, when patients are diagnosed with a rhythm problem like atrial fibrillation, they have to be on certain medications like blood thinners for the rest of their life. Wouldn't it be great if we could get rid of the arrhythmia and then also get rid of the need to be on these medications?
Tarah Schwartz:It really would. And how many patients are we talking about? When you say so many people suffer from heart disease, and they have to be on blood thinners? What kind of number are we talking about?
Dr. Atul Verma:For atrial fibrillation in particular, it's estimated that 1% of all Canadians have this problem. And if you're over the age of 65, nearly 5% of people have this problem. And although these sound like small numbers, when you think about 35 million people in Canada, we're talking about millions of people who are suffering from this problem.
Tarah Schwartz:That really is putting it into perspective. Now, before we let you go. Dr. Verma, I would be remiss not to ask you a little bit about your experience with Montreal. What are you loving about the city so far? Is it the food? You've been living in Toronto, but I think the winters are a little tougher here. But what are you looking forward to about living in this city?
Dr. Atul Verma:I think Montreal is a beautiful city. The food, the restaurants have been excellent. Just the environment. It's a multicultural, multilingual city. The French aspect adds such a beautiful element of culture. So I'm really loving it and I'll get through the winter. No problem.
Tarah Schwartz:I'm sure you will. Dr. Atul Verma is the new Director of Cardiology at the MUHC. I know you're very, very busy person. So we really appreciate you taking the time to join us on Health Matters.
Dr. Atul Verma:Thank you very much. It was a pleasure.
Tarah Schwartz:Coming up next, remembering a health care trailblazer. We talk about the legacy of Dr. Sylvia Cruess. That's next. I'm Tarah Schwartz and this is Health Matters. The world lost a remarkable woman this week, Dr. Sylvia Cruess lived an extraordinary life. She passed away at the age of 92 this week. Dr. Cruess was an endocrinologist. She was the first woman to be Director of the Metabolic Day Centre at the Royal Victoria Hospital. And in 1977, she was the first woman in Quebec and perhaps Canada, to be appointed Medical Director of the Royal Victoria Hospital. She inspired and mentored countless women in their medical careers, including Dr. Joyce Pickering, Director of the Medical Clinical teaching units at the RVH at the MUHC she joins me now to discuss Dr. Cruess' incredible legacy. Thank you so much for being with us, Dr. Pickering.
Dr. Joyce Pickering:It's a pleasure.
Tarah Schwartz:When did you first meet Dr. Cruess?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:I really don't remember because she's a little bit like Queen Elizabeth. She's been around as long as I can remember.
Tarah Schwartz:So take us back to some of the first moments you can remember with her.
Dr. Joyce Pickering:So I would have been a medical student in the late 70s and might well have run into her in the endocrinology context. I probably more formally met her when I was a resident. So that would have been starting in about 1982 or 83.
Tarah Schwartz:And tell us a little bit about how your relationship developed and how you got to know her better and more personally?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:Even when I met her, she was quite an important person. And as a resident, I would have maybe felt a little bit nervous about being too personal with her. But what really struck me about her was how approachable and how practical she was. She wasn't afraid to call a spade a spade, and was always looking for solutions to problems.
Tarah Schwartz:That's it's a really wonderful way to be especially when you're in a position that she was able to hold -Medical Director at the Royal Victoria Hospital. What was she like as a person? Can you give us any insight into who she was on a more personal level?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:I think what I remember most about her was how practical she really was. She gave you straight answers to questions. It was never about her. It was always about addressing the issue and solving the problems. And she had a very broad perspective from having done both managerial work and also having been a clinician herself. So she sort of saw both sides of the issues involved in running a health care system.
Tarah Schwartz:We're speaking with Dr. Joyce Pickering about the legacy of Dr. Sylvia Cruess who passed away this week at the age of 92. I noted some of her incredible achievements when I was doing the introduction, but as a woman in medicine, what does Dr. Cruess' legacy mean to you?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:I think what it means to me is her role in leadership. Even, 30 or 40 years ago, there were plenty of women in medicine, practicing clinical work, and often very good at what they did, as was Dr. Cruess. But she had a leadership position. The Director of Professional Services is in fact, if you like the boss of all the doctors at the hospital, they report to her for their clinical responsibilities. So she had this leadership position. And that was more unusual, especially in that time for women.
Tarah Schwartz:Do you think that she understood how she was a trailblazer either at that time or later?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that. She was such a practical person. It was just about doing what needed to be done. And moving on to the next thing. I suspect she didn't sort of stop and think a lot about how significant her role was. But I never asked her that question.
Tarah Schwartz:So let's talk about what other people might think of it. What impact do you think her achievements or career will have on generations of women who were working with her, alongside her, maybe a few years behind her; as well as the ones that are coming up the future generations?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:Just to give you an example, we recently had the Director of Professional Services for the MUHC, Dr. Ewa Sidorowicz retired after- I don't remember exactly, but probably 10 years or more of working. So that's a sort of a direct descendant if you like, because that's the role that Dr. Cruess had. We have another woman Dr. Lamarre, who's the current Director of Professional services for the MUHC. So you can see that her role has perhaps led to many women feeling that that's an appropriate role for them to take in the hospital management.
Tarah Schwartz:Yes, I think it I think it does. And I feel on some level, she must have known what she was giving to the rest of the world in terms of helping women to move up in the world, like you said to administrative roles, which we certainly need more of. Do you have a favorite memory or interaction with her that you can share?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:I interacted with her many times, but the one that I remember, that came to mind. And that was actually very early on is she was, as you mentioned earlier, an endocrinologist. She was the Director of the Metabolic Day Centre, she worked there. And of course, in the Day Centre, you would take care of many diabetic patients. So it's important to be able to examine their eyes. And she told me that in the Metabolic Day Centre, in the office where she had examined patients, she could not turn off the lights, so she couldn't examine the eyes properly. She looked at me and said, you would have thought that when they were designing a clinic for diabetic doctors, they would have allowed you to turn off the light. She was right. They definitely should have thought of that.
Tarah Schwartz:As you mentioned, the practicality.
Dr. Joyce Pickering:Yeah. Very practical. Called a spade a spade, you know? Yeah.
Tarah Schwartz:Wonderful. We're talking with Dr. Joyce Pickering about the legacy of Dr. Sylvia Cruess, a trailblazer in women's health and administrative roles. She passed away this week at the age of 92. What was your reaction, Dr. Pickering, when you found out that Dr. Cruess had passed away?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:I really felt like it was the end of an era. I think a lot of us have been talking about the end of an era with the passing of Queen Elizabeth. And it's obviously on a much smaller scale, but it's that kind of thing. She's been there, as long as I can remember. I should just mention that after her role as Director of Professional Services, she went on to have yet another very important career in teaching in research and professionalism, which was also important. But she's just been part of the medical faculty at McGill, for as long as I can remember, and probably as long as many people can remember. And not only was she a part of it, she was a leader in it and taught and influenced many people. So that's really what I thought, wow, that's the end of an era.
Tarah Schwartz:Yeah, I think that that sums it up. Well, what about her legacy? I mean, you touched on it a bit in your previous answer. But what becomes the legacy of Dr. Sylvia Cruess? Aside from you know, she had a beautiful, long, long, she was married to her husband, Richard, Dr. Richard Cruess for 71 years. She had children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. But her legacy on a professional level, what do you see that as being?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:Well, two areas, I would say. The first area, we've kind of talked about her role in medical administration and leadership in medical administration. And the second is what she really moved into in the last 25 years, which was her role in research and teaching in professionalism. And she, together with her husband, Dr. Richard Cruess, have had a huge impact on the training of all the physicians who go through McGill. In terms of explicitly teaching about professionalism, helping us think about how to better evaluate professionalism, how to remediate issues when they happen. They've created a name for themselves and for McGill in the area of professionalism in the last roughly 25 years that they've worked. So that's another very big legacy. And, when you had an impact of the medical curriculum, that means you've impacted all the medical students who've gone to McGill, and over the years, we're talking thousands.
Tarah Schwartz:If you are going to describe her to a younger woman who maybe doesn't realize the kind of trailblazing Dr. Cruess did. And maybe how a part of what this one young medical student is living is partly because of how Dr. Cruess paved so many roads. What would you how would you describe Dr. Cruess to a young female medical health care practitioner just starting out her career?
Dr. Joyce Pickering:I would say that one of the things about Dr. Sylvia Cruess was that she cared more about solving the problem and getting something done, then she did about who got the credit for it. And that is something that's hard for a lot of people to do, but she was able to do it. And I hope that that can be a model for many people, as they work in medicine, and of course, in many walks of life that that is that sort of general principle would be true.
Tarah Schwartz:That is a lovely, lovely thought to end on. And I think that is beautiful, and I hope it does touch a lot of people. She was an extraordinary woman, Dr. Sylvia Cruess passed away at the age of 92 this week. Dr. Joyce Pickering, thank you for are giving us a few moments of your time and sharing some wonderful memories with a really incredible person. Thank you so much for your time today.
Dr. Joyce Pickering:You're very welcome. Bye bye.
Tarah Schwartz:Next up on Health Matters, she sought a second opinion after a doctor told her she had advanced ovarian cancer, and a doctor at the MUHC said it might not be cancer at all. I'm Tarah Schwartz, you're listening to Health Matters. Getting a cancer diagnosis is frightening and even more terrifying when you are told that it is advanced, and that you should get your affairs in order. That happened to Ilana Cohen, only she sought out a second opinion from the MUHC's Dr. Lucy Gilbert and that opinion changed her life. Ilana Cohen is one of Dr. Gilbert's patients and volunteers with the DOvEE project detecting ovarian and endometrial cancers early. Thank you for joining us, Ilana.
Ilana Cohen:Happy to be here.
Tarah Schwartz:When did you first suspect something was wrong with your health?
Ilana Cohen:It was actually like it was over a span of I would say even over a year or so. I would say in 2016-2017, I just wasn't feeling well. But it would always happen around that time in a month. And as a woman, I never really thought anything of it.
Tarah Schwartz:So what was a diagnosis that came from one of your doctors?
Ilana Cohen:So I wasn't feeling well. And I went, I can't live like this anymore. And I decided just to go to a walk-in clinic and say what's wrong. From there, I was told to get my affairs in order. They did an ultrasound and they said you don't have much time. Go enjoy your life.
Tarah Schwartz:That is absolutely shocking. I can't even imagine what that must have felt like, how did you go from that moment to, I want a second opinion and you found Dr. Gilbert?
Ilana Cohen:Through it, I called various doctors, I called gynecologist and I was lucky enough to get in front of Dr. Gilbert. And she looked at me and she said, I don't even think this is cancer. So that was a span of three weeks, I went to see a whole bunch of doctors and I got in front of Dr. Gilbert. And all of my world just changed again.
Tarah Schwartz:So tell us about what happened once you met Dr. Gilbert and that process from being diagnosed to what she ended up telling you. Take us through that part of the story.
Ilana Cohen:When I got in front of Dr. Gilbert obviously I told her what was told to me. She said they have different experts over the MUHC. We did a whole bunch of tests. It was up and down. The fear was horrific. And I just got so lucky in the next three weeks, I was in and out of the hospital recovering. So I went from diagnosis of get your affairs in order to six weeks, I'm home recovering.
Tarah Schwartz:Wow, so what has Dr. Gilbert come to mean to you?
Ilana Cohen:What I realized through this whole situation was so many women were not as lucky as I was. So many women are actually given this diagnosis. As much as we say other cancers are the silent killer ovarian cancer is the silent killer. People only get diagnosed in stage three and four because as women we don't go ahead and we take care of everyone else and we forget about ourselves. And we think a little pain here, a little pain there. It doesn't really matter. And Dr. Gilbert is changing the landscape for women. Because of her, we will never hear stage three and four anymore as women go and get checked and take care of their health first.
Tarah Schwartz:Ilana Cohen is a patient of Dr. Lucy Gilbert. She's come on to tell her story. She's talking about the DOvEEgene test which Dr. Gilbert created. There is a clinical trial for the DOvEE test going on in Montreal right now. They're looking for women to take part. So Ilana, what was your diagnosis then from Dr. Gilbert?
Ilana Cohen:Dr. Gilbert in the end, I had a borderline ovarian tumor. So they took it out and everything was fine.
Tarah Schwartz:Incredible. So you touched on it a little bit. But what message then would you have for women about advocating for their health? Like you said, you thought it was that time a month, you didn't think that it was something that you needed to get checked out until you did. So what is your advice for women who might be feeling similar to how you were? What is your advice for when to stop and say maybe I should get to sooner than later?
Ilana Cohen:My advice to women and to everybody is you know your body. You've been living with yourself long enough. If you feel that something's off, just go check it out. And if you're not sure, go get that second opinion. We live in an amazing city, we are so lucky with the health care system that we have. We've attracted people like Dr. Gilbert. So go and take care of yourself, listen to your body. I'm part of the DOvEE committee as well. And one of the co-chairs, Joanne Photiades has said, luck should not be a factor anymore.
Tarah Schwartz:I love that.
Ilana Cohen:And if we are lucky enough to be to be living in this city; don't let luck be a factor. Take care of yourself, go get the tests that need to get them.
Tarah Schwartz:So let's talk about that you ended up as you mentioned becoming a volunteer for Dr. Gilbert and the DOvEE project. Why was that important to you? And what does that experience been like?
Ilana Cohen:It's awe-inspiring. Dr. Gilbert and her team are amazing women who just have devoted their lives to giving back. This experience is better than I ever imagined. I am so happy that I'm part of a team where the future generation of women do not have to know the difficulties of being diagnosed in stage three and four.
Tarah Schwartz:So what Ilana is referring to once again, is the DOvEE test, which can detect ovarian cancers in stage one and stage two, which is before they become as she mentioned, a death sentence... the silent killer. So if you would like to take part in the DOvEE clinical trial, I'm going to give you a number to call. It's 1-866-716-3267. 1-866-716-3267. And you have to be between 45 and 75 years old and have a uterus. So one final question for you, Ilana. What would you like our listeners to know about your experience?
Ilana Cohen:I would like the listeners to know that. It's not always a death sentence. We are lucky that we have the team here. I want listeners to know and get checked out. Take care of yourself. Do what you can, give back when you feel blessed.
Tarah Schwartz:Give back when you feel blessed. A perfect moment to say thank you so much for coming on Ilana Cohen and I'm thrilled for you obviously that you ended up finding Dr. Gilbert and that she took such good care of you really, really happy for you. Thank you for coming on and sharing your story.
Ilana Cohen:Thanks so much, Tarah.