How The Cancer Community Can Learn From History

  As an oncology patient, it is easy to think that cancer is the center of the scientific and medical universe.  But as Laurie Edwards describes in her new book, In the Kingdom of the Sick, “Now more than 133 million Americans live with chronic illness, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all health care dollars.”  I believe the cancer community can learn a lot from patients, advocates, and activists living with other types of disease.  So, I was thrilled when Laurie wanted to interview me on this topic for her new book, which describes through research and stories the social history of chronic illness in America. Looking back to AIDS activists in the 1980s and 1990s, I am astounded by the efficacy of their political action.  And what’s more, their illness was considered a gay disease.  If you think it is hard being a cancer patient advocating for  oncology research in the twenty-first century, try being a gay man with AIDS in the 1980s when you were blamed for your disease and seen as a physical threat to the population at large.  Amid this social climate, the AIDS community was still incredibly successful in their fight for research funding and access to treatment and care. In America, heath care and disease management are policy issues.  The AIDS community knew this and they were extremely strategic and savvy in their fight to obtain funding for research and care.   But policy is a dirty word in the cancer community.  I have a hard time...
Source: Everything Changes - Category: Cancer Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs