Lakshmi Yeturu

Brian Dooreck, MD, of the Gastrointestinal Diagnostic Centers, Pembroke Pines, Florida, spoke with the Colon Cancer Foundation about their newly launched Colorectal Cancer Provider Outreach Program (CRC POP)—it’s evolution and mission. CRC POP aims to arm newly diagnosed colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and their caregivers with resources that can support them through their diagnosis and treatment.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself: your personal and academic background and your interests?

My name is Dr. Brian Dooreck. I am a gastroenterologist focused on GI [gastrointestinal] and liver disease. I trained at the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital and have been in clinical practice for 15 years in South Florida, seeing patients for all GI-related issues. My training goes back to New York, Boston, Tel Aviv, NYC, and Miami. As a clinical gastroenterologist, I am quite involved with my patients in a relatively busy practice, but I am also engaged in other aspects of the medical, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial worlds.

CRC POP was just an idea a few months ago that quickly became reality. What I have repeatedly experienced over the years is that when we diagnose people with colorectal cancer, we’re telling them that they have a problem. As they are waking up from sedation [following a colonoscopy], we tell them: ‘You have a problem and this is what we need to do: you need to get labs, you need to get a CAT scan, you need to see a surgeon, you need to get the follow-up biopsies and then see me in a week or two. We will get through this; we will work together.’

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Brian Dooreck, MD, of the Gastrointestinal Diagnostic Centers, Pembroke Pines, Florida, spoke with the Colon Cancer Foundation about their newly launched Colorectal Cancer Provider Outreach Program (CRC POP)—it’s evolution and mission. 

CRC POP: Arming Newly Diagnosed CRC Patients With Useful Resources

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer surgeons worldwide have devised models to aid with the prioritization of canceled (backlog) elective and upcoming cancer surgeries. Researchers have also strongly advised conducting COVID-19 testing at various time points before and after any surgical procedures with the aim of minimizing the risk of developing COVID-19–related mortality peri- and postoperatively, particularly in high-risk patients undergoing major surgeries.

During the 2020 European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO)’s annual meeting, speaker and scientist, Roberto Valente, MD, Ph.D., who was involved in modifying the SWALIS prioritization model, shared their findings from implementing it in Spring 2020 to prioritize elective surgery throughout and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. SWALIS 2020 dynamically reorders the surgical waiting list for cancer patients from least to most urgent in real-time, thereby ensuring priority-based surgical access and scheduling for past, present, and incoming patients.

Following the SWALIS 2020 feasibility phase (n=55 patients), researchers were able to successfully prioritize 240 referrals using this model without any major issues 222 cancer patients underwent surgery without related complications or delayed discharges.

SWALIS 2020 allowed safe surgical procedures here

Author Lakshmi Yeturu is an intern with the 

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer surgeons worldwide have devised models to aid with the prioritization of canceled (backlog) elective and upcoming cancer surgeries. 

Lakshmi Yeturu

CRC POP: Arming Newly Diagnosed CRC Patients With Useful Resources

Model Helps Prioritize Surgical Care During COVID-19

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