Our next meeting is Tuesday, September 27th, from 10 am to 12 noon at the MDH Snelling office Park Building - Little Fork Room.

At our last meeting, some questions came up about the data we have available to us, data that in part, is guiding our proposed projects .  Talking with Dr. Carin Perkins, Dr. Jane Korn, and Elizabeth Moe, we took another look at the most recent Cervical Cancer MN Update -released in April 2005 (see attached PDF). On pg 2 we get a glimpse of Pap screening rates, but Dr. Perkins feels strongly that any community experiencing disparities in cervical cancer incidence and mortality is appropriate for enhanced interventions. That we have selected Somali and African American women here in the metro as the first communities we will be working with does not mean that we will ignore other groups of women. Dr. Korn met recently with the office of Minority and Multicultural health and they were also curious about how we selected these 2 communities. Jane did a nice job of responding to their questions by talking about both opportunity that have arisen in these communities ( a door swings open and we walk through), and also what our group decides together. Again, I want to emphasize that these 2 communities are where we are starting and that in the future we will move into other communities. Jane also reminded me that if there are team members who feel strongly about working with a certain community or group-yes, they should feel free to do so. 

Another task option: have an understanding of what activities are occurring to address cervical cancer disparities undertaken by other groups and organizations. We have been contacted by Mayo-they are doing some terrific work in the Somali and African communities in the Rochester area. I have sent an invitation to them if they are interested in joining our team. More on that on Tuesday.

Tuesday meeting agenda:
Digene is coming to meet with us Pat will show us the new Women's Health Web Page. Roshan & Gay will share Friend to Friend data.  Benita will present her proposal to work with African American women in North Minneapolis **we have new data specific to North Mpls***

See you there!