I was honored to be asked by my oncologist to join POQC. My initial overview New Member meeting with Vanessa made me feel hopeful about joining POQC. After joining, and meeting everyone POQC is an amazing opportunity to connect with other cancer related individuals to learn from and be inspired. I am humbled to be among such great Cancer Survivors and leaders.

I’m fortunate to have had many volunteer opportunities in my life – especially during the past several years as I edged toward and moved fully into retirement. The most rewarding and fulfilling of that volunteer work has been as a member of POQC. The reasons are many, but most notable has been having a valued – truly valued – patient voice for cancer care.

I’m proud to say I’ve been a POQC member for more than five years. I can’t imagine not having this enriching work in my life.

It is heart, in that sense that can bring purpose to these things. Heart does not come in the form of ink and pixels. It is heart that realizes purpose, that raises motivation, that addresses what is seen, that speaks to the practitioners, that advises and affects so that tasks, decisions and choices are refined and faith built up, that offers things an instant replay would never include.

I felt honored and hopeful about joining POQC. My term with the Cancer Center’s Council was ending after nearly six years and I was looking for ways to continue working with the cancer community. My husband received his cancer care at UM and I wanted to find a meaningful way to continue to give back in some way, however small it might be. POQC has more than met that wish.

There is so much to help us do better at survival in cancers, and so many more new treatments out there, but the one thing that is often overlooked is – is it the right thing to do for the patient? So I was thrilled to see that MOQC is focusing on hospice. It’s so under looked in oncology these days.

We had some nice conversations of the incorporation of palliative care for patients and barriers to provide PC in our clinics. Will work locally to expand outpatient palliative care options for our patients to complement the PC that can be provided by the treating oncologist. Also discussed good strategies in the clinic that have worked well at other centers during COVID pandemic that could be further developed at our cancer center.

I was fortunate enough to become a member. I was honored to be asked. It was and is an honor to be a member of POQC.

As typical for this conference, I am motivated to continue to integrate my palliative practice more fully into the fiber of our cancer center activities, and to advance ways of measuring the impact of the work we do.

MOQC brings us all together. It’s very unifying, we’re all on the same page, we’re all looking at the same issues and developing like action plans so that we’re improving care.