FSU College of Medicine 2018 annual report 2019 Annual Report | Page 46

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DISCOVERY
‘EQUITY IS ACHIEVABLE’
Cancer screening, treatment and survival rates vary
among races and communities. One community might have
widespread use of screening tests but poor access to cutting-
edge treatments, or vice versa. And the reasons for those
disparities can vary as well, so where do you begin?
With a three-year, $800,500 Bankhead-Coley research
grant from the Florida Department of Health, Professor
George Rust is working to give Florida
communities the tools and information to
find out why their specific gap exists so
they can do something about it.
Focusing largely on the gaps between
whites and African Americans, the
project aims to figure out which cancer
interventions – like improving access to screenings,
decreasing lag time in diagnosis, or directing patients to
optimal treatment – can have the greatest impact in tackling
disparities.
“Inequities in cancer are some of the most poignant,” Rust
said in an interview with “FSU Headlines.” “Over 1,000
women in Florida die each year that wouldn’t die if we could
make equal the rates between black and white in terms of
breast cancer deaths, so trying to understand and change
that is important.”
lives you could save,’” Rust said. “In a different community,
He’s also trying to shift the national conversation by
where the screening rates are equal, we might be able to say, pointing out that some communities are actually eliminating
computer models that can adapt to local communities and ‘Here’s where you need to focus your efforts. Maybe it’s in some disparities. In other words, they’re not inevitable.
provide user-friendly information to fix inequities. partnership with hospitals and oncologists to really make
Rust and his team are using big-data analytics to build
“This is doable,” he said. “Equity is achievable. If we can
sure that the new lifesaving treatments are getting equally identify specific mechanisms and specific leverage points
say, ‘Here’s your most strategic opportunity to save lives – if to everyone who needs them. And that’s how many lives you or interventions, that could flip the script and change those
you could equalize those screening rates, this is how many could save if you did that.’” outcomes.”
“Let’s say Community A has a big screening gap – we could