(Spirit Lake)– We’ve been hearing a lot lately about Iowa’s high cancer rates. 87 Iowa counties are now participating in the “Combat Cancer Initiative”. Dickinson county is among them. Brandi Larson of Dickinson County Public Health says the initiative is focused on three of the most common types of cancer in Iowa: lung, skin and colorectal. She told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday the initiative is being rolled out in phases…
“The first phase is a big social media campaign. 30,000 radon test kits will be distributed across those 87 counties for us to hand out to residents at no cost. 500 homes that have positive tests can receive up to $2,000 for a mitigation system through the program. And then they will also train 28 mitigation specialists across Iowa. Those can be people who are part of a local public health as long as they have a two year construction background. Otherwise they’ll find community members who are interested in receiving that training. And then there will be 3,000 colorectal cancer screening kits that will be distributed to uninsured Iowans. 200 of those Iowans that receive, or find out they have a positive test, will receive assistance with follow-up visits and getting them connected with the right doctors to help them.”
Larson says another part of the initiative addresses skin cancer…
“1,475 dermatoscopes will be distributed throughout those 87 counties for family practice physicians to use when they’re doing assessments on the skin to help identify those problem areas. And then the last piece of that is an i-pad will be put somewhere in the county for citizens to utilize if they have a telehealth visit or maybe they can’t get to the provider, they can go use that tablet and connect with their provider in that way.”
Larson says they aren’t sure yet where the location of that will be in the county. She says additional information will be forthcoming.
