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The Georgia Cancer Initiative
We are in the process of developing a working relationship with the State of Georgia on a
statewide initiative designed to improve cancer care and cancer technology access for all
residents of Georgia. We currently have a contract with the Georgia Department of Community
Health (GDCH), which provides health coverage for 25% of the more than eight million residents
of the State. Although the current contract is limited to a specific cancer-focused data
analysis, we believe that the scope of the contract will be expanded to include the integration
of screening programs, clinical research programs, the development of a comprehensive cancer
data repository and the potential development of a serum and tissue repository for the
approximately two million Georgia residents whose healthcare is covered by GDCH. Our
strategy is to use the relationship with GDCH as a cornerstone for the rollout of improved
cancer screening, clinical trials and the other infrastructure components to the rest of the
State via the initiatives under the direction of the Georgia Cancer Coalition. Once expanded
to the entire State, the Cancer Initiative will ultimately make screening programs, clinical
trials and other improved cancer services available to the entire population of the State,
providing improved access to existing cancer patients and the nearly 32,000 new
cancer patient cases each year.
If an expanded contract with the State should be achieved, as a key component of the Georgia Cancer Initiative we will develop a central data repository, which will contain tumor registry data as well as other patient encounter data. This cancer data repository will provide researchers with longitudinal patient records for long term tracking of treatment efficacy and cancer recurrence.
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