Active Surveillance 101 course part 2 launches--patient and spouse consult with Dr. Klotz, AS "father"
By Howard Wolinsky
Dr. Laurence Klotz, the “father” of Active Surveillance, is featured in the second video in the series “Active Surveillance 101” which will be presented at the Active Surveillance Patients International (ASPI) meeting at 12 p.m. ET on Oct. 29.
Register here.
AS 101 is a series of conversations between actual patients and their partners/spouses and leading prostate cancer experts covering essential questions.
The goal of this series is to reach all AS candidates, including those who have not yet been diagnosed with prostate cancer but have rising PSAs (prostate-specific antigen) blood levels to provide them with an introduction to AS.
We—The Active Surveillor was one of the organizers—want to provide the tools to help these patients formulate questions when they go to their family doctors, urologists, or oncologists.
(Nancy and Larry White, spouse/patient meet with Dr. Klotz in AS 101 video)
AS 101 also is aimed at newly diagnosed patients on AS and established AS patients who want a refresher.
The premiere of part 1 of AS 101 has just aired at the monthly meeting of ASPI. To view.
The video features a patient and spouse, Larry and Nancy White, a real couple from New Mexico, meeting with family doctor Dr. Stephen Spann, dean of the University of Houston College of Medicine, on a consultation about rising PSA, treatment options, and a referral to a urologist. The prostate cancer “journey” often begins in the office of a primary care physician like Spann to discuss rising PSAs and then moves on to other specialists, such as urologists like Klotz.
The ASPI program includes the video and a question-and-answer period with patients.
In part 2, the Whites meet with Dr. Klotz, who explains early-stage, low-risk prostate cancer. Again, there will be a Q&A.
Earlier this year, ASPI honored Klotz, of the University of Toronto, as the winner of the first Gerald Chodak Active Surveillance Pioneer Award. The late Dr. Chodak was Klotz’s mentor and also was ASPI’s first medical advisor.
In the new video, Larry White, a real prostate cancer patient and himself a physician, and his wife Nancy, who has been an AS advocate, interact with Klotz as in a simulation of a real patient-partner-physician visit.
AS 101 was created under the banner of the Active Surveillance Coalition, whose members include ASPI, AnCan’s Virtual Support Group for Active Surveillance, Prostate Cancer Support Canada, Prostate Cancer Research Institute and The Active Surveillor newsletter.
For more background on AS 101, go to the blog for the Society for Participatory Medicine.