Episode Transcript
Welcome to OlympusTalks, the podcast that brings you to the forefront of medical technologies as we explore advancements and innovations in GI. This eight-episode series features talks with healthcare professionals, patients, and Olympus subject matter experts. Listen as they dive into various aspects of GI health focused on improving patient outcomes through best practices. Stay tuned for conversations designed to educate, inspire, and inform.
Brooks Bell is a paid endorser of Olympus Corporation, its subsidiaries and or its affiliates, Olympus Corporation of the Americas and its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents and representatives. Collectively. Olympus do not represent to or warrant the accuracy, reliability or applicability of the content. Under no circumstances shall Olympus be liable for any costs, expenses, losses, claims, liabilities or other damages, whether direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or otherwise, that may arise from or be incurred in connection with the content or any use thereof. The content of this podcast was paid for by Olympus. The positions and statements made herein are based on the speaker’s experiences, thoughts and opinions and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Olympus. If you are a patient, it is important that you discuss information about your health with your doctor.
Hey everyone, this is Tom Salemi. Welcome to the first episode of the OlympusTalks podcast. I’m here with the star of our very first show, one of our co-stars, I should say, Kurt Cannon. Kurt is Vice President of Endoscopy Marketing at the Olympus Corporation of the Americas, Kurt, welcome to show business.
Thank you. Clearly going for the C list stars here, so thanks. I appreciate you having me.
No, no sir. We signed the Type A stars for the opening episode, so certainly speaks to your drawing power. So you were on this podcast episode with Brooks Bell of Worldclass Clothing and we talked a lot about, well, about one of Olympus’ missions which is helping people get early testing and having colonoscopies done at an earlier age and they might be comfortable. What were some of your takeaways from this conversation with Brooks?
Yeah, I think one of the big takeaways is educating the general community around the importance of colonoscopy in general. Obviously the screening age has dropped from 50 to 45 in recent years, but the reality that early detection is an important part and screening is where you get that. Early detection, as you mentioned, Brooks’s story is a great story about early onset colorectal cancer. She wasn’t even 40 years old when she was diagnosed and it was through her family, her advocacy, and not really having a family history, but her own advocacy for her health that she was able to get treated and is a survivor today. So that’s really one of the big takeaways I think, that people will get out of this podcast.
Absolutely. And we, of course, talked about some of Olympus offerings in the space, and folks can hear all about that. What are some of the. Before we get into the discussion, just circling back on the importance of testing when you’re at a party or a barbecue, and if the topic comes up of testing, what do you do to kind of convince people that it’s better to get looked at earlier than later?
So first colonoscopy should be the topic at every barbecue, the first thing you should bring up. So definitely would recommend it. It breaks the ice. But I think the important thing, especially if you’re at a family barbecue, honestly, is this is a family history issue. People don’t traditionally understand their family history for any disease, but with colorectal cancer, it is largely preventable if you get screened early enough.
And you just need to know if there’s a family history there. So having the conversations is important. And the other component of that, Tom, is your ethnic background actually plays a role in your overall risk. So not only understand your family history, but understand who you are and that ethnic makeup and understand how that impacts your need to go get screened earlier or more often.
Great. Well, we’ve covered a lot of that in the episode today, so I don’t want to take any further delay. Thank you to you, Kurt, for being on our first episode with Brooks. And of course, thank you to our corporate partner, Olympus, for making this podcast series possible. And without any further delay, let’s start of episode one of the OlympusTalks podcast.
Well, Brooks Bell and Kurt Cannon, welcome to the podcast.
So glad to be here.
Yeah, thanks for having us.
It’s going to be an important episode and I’m really grateful to Olympus for putting us all together to really get this message out to the public. So let’s put that important talk off for a moment and just take a few minutes to learn about you both so our listeners and our viewers know your perspectives and your histories and your stories. Kurt, let’s start with you. How did you find your way into the MedTech industry?
Oh, it’s an interesting path, but probably one that many people that start in sales have actually have a degree in history. So I went to school, loved history, wanted to have. I needed a degree in order to get into a sales job. So went to school, got my degree, ended up selling vaccines for two years, and then got a phone call that got me into the MedTech device space was with a competitor of Olympus. At this point in time.
And that was where the journey started. And I entered and never wanted to leave again. Found my home in GI endoscopy. And that was 25 plus years ago.
What was it about this particular space within this great industry that stuck with you that resonated?
Well, I was obviously very young. It was my first foray into the space. So I don’t know that I ever took a chance to look at something different. But I fell in love with really the physicians, the engagements you have with them, and really learning about how they help patients. And then once you learn that and then you understand how your company impacts those things. If you’ve got a great company and you enjoy the physicians you work with at that point, why leave? And that’s really other than changing companies. I stayed in the same field because I love the field of GI endoscopy.
Excellent. All right, well, great story. And Brooks, let’s unpack your history. What brought you here today in your company? First, let’s start with your company and what’s the name, what’s the mission? And then I think we, from there we can work backwards to understand how you got to lead this effort.
Yeah, so I’m the co founder of World Class Clothing and it’s an apparel brand that seeks to change the culture around colonoscopies to make them a little sexy. And it’s actually a non profit and all of our net profits go towards reducing barriers for underinsured folks to get their colonoscopy.
That’s amazing. So how did you come upon upon this mission?
Well, I was actually the CEO and founder of a data analytics company that I was running for 16 years. I had started it in my early 20s and then when I was 38, I had blood in my stool and saw three doctors, had to kind of fight to get a colonoscopy and was diagnosed with colon cancer age 38. And I left my company actually the day after my diagnosis and handed it off to my president to continue to run and started to research colon cancer to understand what had happened to me. How could I get it so young, why wasn’t it on my radar?
And you know, what could I learn from it? And so I became obsessed with colonoscopies actually for the next six years. And in finding out that how powerful they are in space, it became my mission to change, change our culture and help people learn what I learned.
So what from that experience convinced you to redirect yourself in your career to this effort? A lot of people would go through that, just say, ooh, bullet dodged. Let’s move on with my life. What stuck with you?
I guess I felt like I was in a unique position to be able to have that kind of impact. You know, having been a CEO of a company, I had leadership skills, I had capital, I had a network that was larger than most. And I don’t know, I just. And I think that having run my company for 16 years, you know, just. I was probably ready for a change. And so I took some time off and took care of myself. Healed and, I don’t know, it was kind of exciting to have a purpose, you know, to have something that made life just a lot more meaningful.
Having gone through something so crazy as cancer at a young age, it was kind of. It felt like it was something that could bring me closer to people. You know, we all have colons, we’re all at risk. And it was a way I could connect with people in a way that felt meaningful.
So how does a clothing company afford you the opportunity to spread that message? Give us a sense of what you’re trying to do through that medium.
With colonoscopies, people are very afraid of them, and then also it’s hard for them to get them. So we have both a demand problem and a supply problem. And so thinking about where can I move the needle, I was thinking that really the demand problem is where I can have the greatest impact. And so if I could get people to want a colonoscopy that felt worthy, you know, once they want them, then we can work on making them more available.
And so I actually had an early success a couple years ago where I convinced a celebrity to get a colonoscopy. And it proved out my thesis that if we can increase demand, it will make a difference. And I got Ryan Reynolds to get a colonoscopy, and he actually created a video around it that had 16 million views in the first week. And so after that I thought, okay, well, you know, thinking about this in a really creative way, you know, and trying out things that haven’t been done before really might make a difference. And so apparel, you know, and fashion is very much in the cultural space.
Setting trends, helping people feel and look cool, and also self expression, these are all very important to us as humans. And so cancer is something that people are universally afraid of. So if you can prevent it, that’s very empowering, and that is something that’s worth celebrating. And so giving people a way to kind of connect with something that’s scary, but not in a way that’s also empowering. For them is kind of the goal with, with our apparel brand. It basically, it’s very simple. It doesn’t actually say colon cancer. It doesn’t say cancer. It doesn’t say colonoscopies. On most of our line, it just says world class.
And so and versions of. You can see the hat behind me that has a stylistic version of ass. And that’s world class. It’s actually short for world class ass. And so, you know, kind of, you know, try to activate the energy that is around a colonoscopy and in a very positive, very joyful way that I think is really resonating with people right now.
That’s amazing. Kurt, you’ve been in the space for a while. Can you talk a bit about the patient population in this space? What is the patient population like that Olympus is dealing with in this particular space?
I think, Tom, it’s really interesting to see how things have changed over the past 20 years. I’d say when I started, I don’t know that the patient population in general was as educated as it is today. I would consider it a highly educated population of people in every form of medicine at this point. Because so much information is available to people these days, right? They can search things themselves and get the facts and find people like Brooks who are also patients and now patient advocates and survivors who they can lean into.
And they don’t have to go to their doctor for all the information to understand everything. So they’ve got every vehicle available to them so the patients are more educated. And I think the companies, and I speak specifically to Olympus being a leader in this space for so long and having developed the first gastro camera 75 years ago this year. You have a big responsibility, and we talk about that a lot here, about what is the responsibility we have not just to the business, but to the patients, to our physicians who are our customers to help educate, support, be more involved in the community aspect of things. That’s not something that I don’t think a lot of companies 20 plus years ago really focused a lot on the community, the education side, the patient side. We just tried to serve the customers. We had the doctors with product and how they did that with patients and serve their patients was secondary.
It’s actually very holistic now, which is what I love about the business and how it has transformed is that I can have a relationship with someone like Brooks where she and I talk about different things and how we can work together. And there are other patient advocacy groups that other parts of our company deal with all the time. So not only is it a more educated group, but they’re more engaged. And we as companies have also opened up our arms to be part of that conversation.
And how about the physicians? What is their appetite for change like, for technology, for new technology? Are they fast adopters? Are they cautious? Give us a sense of the physicians you’re working with.
It’s interesting. I was thinking about this a bit when you posed this question. There are some people who would say, back again, 20, 25 years ago, it was like the golden age of endoscopy, where all this technology and innovation occurred. In reality, I would say that this is just another golden age. It’s a different generation of physicians. But the desire to innovate and push for new therapeutic treatments, the changes in technology, the physicians we work with, they come in all shapes and sizes in terms of early adoption.
But when you get into the academic space and you look at physicians in that space, they are almost all of them looking to lean forward as far as they can and drive innovation with corporate partners when they can, or in many times on their own with startup companies, which, again, have proliferated over the past probably decade or 15 years to really kind of supercharge the innovation in the industry.
And companies like Olympus have stepped up and done the same thing as we transform our technologies from basic imaging, which is the history of the organization. When you look at cameras and microscopes, to how those technologies apply to endoscopes today, which is the only part of Olympus that remains, is the medical side of the business at this point, totally focused. You’ve got people that are clamoring every day for new innovation. And that innovation is happening, and it’s changing the outcomes of patients on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, without a doubt.
And Brooks, talk a little more about the patient population. I mean, you mentioned that we all have one thing in common. We have the colon. I don’t know if there’s much more than that. Like I said before, if you’re not diagnosed with something horrible, I don’t know if you assigned yourself. A person assigns themselves to being someone who would get a colonoscopy other than it’s something that they’re planning to do someday.
What’s the patient population like that you’re dealing with? And how do you create something that binds folks together so you have a critical mass of patients who can help you affect change?
I think there’s so much fear around getting colonoscopies, and it’s because conceptually, you know, the idea is uncomfortable. And recognizing that that’s where people are. And meeting them, where they’re at, I think is part of what we’re trying to do. I think we’re trying to also just focus on the empowerment of a colonoscopy. People don’t realize that it very well might prevent a case of colon cancer in them and start to educate them on why they want to do it.
So many. We’ve been talking about colonoscopies for the last 50 years, about all the reasons you don’t want to do it. You know, the prep, the idea we’re joking about it, the discomfort, you know, you might feel old. It’s just the vulnerability. And so. And we don’t talk about the reasons you do want to do it. And we don’t talk about polyps, you know, which is the purpose of finding a. Doing a colonoscopy is finding out if you have polyps in addition to tumors, in addition to other diseases.
But finding polyps is really the reason you want to do it. And they’re very common. And so if we start kind of reframing it and getting people curious about what might be in their body and also getting to engage with really amazing technology, you know, maybe some of the most advanced technology technology someone will ever really engage with. I mean, having. We think about the vulnerability of a scope, but it’s actually a pretty amazing what you’re doing in there. I mean, having pictures and little snares and it’s all being operated from a distance.
I mean, it’s, I mean, high def. It’s pretty cool. If you start to think about it in different ways and it’s clearing you out, it’s almost like having a deep colon exfoliation. You know, you wake up feeling skinny. You feel. You feel clean. And so I think that if we just think about in a, you know, think about it in a humorous, funny, positive and pretty exciting way, I think that will. That will truly save lives.
No, I agree. And I shared prior to pushing record. I’ve had mine and it was not a big deal. It was not a big deal at all. And actually, I mean, the prep was even. I remember I kept reading the instructions because I’m like, am I doing this right? Because I’m not miserable at all. Like, I must be missing a step because it really was. Was easy to do. You’re right. I dropped a few pounds after that and kept him off for a time.
I think I need to go back and do another.
Yeah, the nap. We don’t even talk about how great.
So Brooks, what can industry do? Kurt mentioned he talks to you once a month. I’m sure you’re. You’re engaged with others in industry. What can industry do to help you? Help get the word out? Because obviously it helps everybody. It helps patients, it helps physicians and helps MedTech companies. If more people are, as you say, if the demand goes up for these procedures.
Yeah, I think that, I think Olympus and physicians are in a position to help, not just help patients kind of know what to expect, but also help them make informed decisions about getting a high quality colonoscopy. This is an advanced procedure for many of them. It’s maybe the first time they’ve been in a gown, maybe the first time they’ve been put under, and they’re afraid of it and they want to make sure they’re getting the best colonoscopy that they could. And it’s important because the better you are catching polyps and taking them out, the more likely it is that you will be protected in the future from cancer.
We have these quality measures like adenoma detection rate and other measures that most doctors that they track on their own behalf and I think helping patients be aware of them and asking about them, also asking about kind of investment in technology. You know, what is the. How new is the equipment? Like, what are the features? Just knowing that the doctor, the physicians are investing in patient care and technology to make it easier for them to find as many polyps as possible and make it as comfortable as possible.
I think those are things that doctors should get more comfortable talking about and for patients to start to ask about. Because I think the more confident they feel in this procedure, the more willing they’ll be able to do it.
So, Kurt, you have a lot of input from Brooks and patients and you’re obviously engaged with physicians a lot. Talk a bit about how you’re taking that input and how it’s translated into Olympus offerings in this space. And maybe this is a chance for you just to share a bit about your portfolio in this area.
Sure. I think what’s unique about Olympus and what we try to talk about a lot and remind even ourselves is how comprehensive our portfolio is, again as a pure MedTech company now whose largest division is GI Endoscopy. We run the portfolio from the endoscope and imaging all the way through the devices, cleaning and disinfection of those devices so they can get back to the next patient. All of that under our umbrella. So I think the center of it and the thing we have to always focus on, especially Brooks mentioned ADR, adenoma detection rate.
Everything starts with the processing platform. So we just launched our EVIS X1 endoscopy system a little over a year ago, and that’s our latest technology. And it’s a processing platform that processes the images and utilizes different imaging technologies to help identify lesions as well, to help the physicians. But the scope has to plug into that. And over the years and generations of endoscopes, you see them getting smaller with larger working channels. They call inside the scope.
We focus heavily on the ergonomics of those scopes. If you think about a physician who does screening colonoscopy, they might do 15 to 20 screening colonoscopies a day. That’s a lot of repetitive motion. So it’s one thing to focus a product on the needs of ultimately, the patient and how the physician treats the patient. You also have to treat the physician and make sure that they can continue to perform at the highest possible standard. And there’s a lot of different ways that we have to think about the product as well. So when you think of endoscopes, the ergonomics of it, the size of it, the size of the channels, allows it to be more comfortable for the patient, but also allows the physician to insert more therapeutic devices down to retrieve the polyps, as Brooks mentioned.
And those are critical. You send those off the pathology to determine whether there is or isn’t something more serious that needs to be treated. So there’s a lot of factors that have to go into the design of an endoscope, and you get a lot of that feedback from your physicians, but you also can garner a lot of that from listening to a patient or a survivor and their stories as well. So when you look at that part of our portfolio, I think it’s critical that we continue to evolve the image technologies to help the physicians and also the ergonomics around the endoscope. So then you look at the second part of our portfolio is the devices that go down the scope to retrieve the pathology that you need and to treat.
So that could be, again, a snare, a forcep. It’s a needle, sometimes to inject, it’s sometimes a knife to cut actually things out of the patient. Right. Pathology out of the patient, which is a very common procedure these days called ESD or EMR. So all of those technologies, again, come from these interactions with physicians who are trying to be more minimally invasive with how they treat. So endoscopy, endoscopists, and endoscopes are a growing way to treat patients and get them back home with their families the same day.
And then the last component of that I mentioned is, you know, the cleaning and disinfection, obviously, a huge component of this is how do you use an endoscope and then reuse it again? And it is one of the key pillars of our organization is understanding that, making the machines that do it and trying to lead from the technological standpoint.
I’m coming at this from a position that it seems like this has been a something that folks have known they need to do for a long time. And you’re doing a great job of raising awareness and of letting people know that these tests, they should be screened sooner, and they should certainly be screened. But what’s something that folks need to know that might really drive that point home? Is there a change in the dynamics of colon cancer? Is there some new thing that folks should be aware of that you think would really kind of grab their attention and lead them to getting a screening done?
Yeah, Tom, I think it’s critical people to understand that the screening age used to be 50, and several years ago, that was changed to 45. What’s actually the scariest thing that’s been occurring, and I think most important for people to know is that according to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, 10% of colon cancer cases are diagnosed in people under 50, and that is rising at about 1 to 2% per year. So the fastest growing group of diagnosed patients is likely under the screening age.
And ultimately that story and that trend is what led us to Brooks and to meet her, because that’s her story, and it’s a very powerful story to tell, and the way she tells it is tremendous. And that’s why we continue to work with her to try and find avenues for her to tell her story, because people need to hear it, and they might not always listen to me or even to their physician, and they might kind of slough off what they see in the news.
It’s kind of hard to ignore another human being giving you their personal story, and especially when they become more common.
Well, Brooke, let’s unpack that, because 10% is a scary number. Given to Kurt’s point, the vast majority of people getting screened are going to be over 50. So if 10% are under 50, I think the sample size of that is pretty small. So what is that? Talk a bit about that scary element, and how are you getting that message to the people who need to hear it?
According to American Cancer Society, 1 in 260 people get colon cancer before they’re 50. And it’s about 1 in 23, 1 in 24 in their lifetime. When you think about that, that’s like, I don’t know, 1 in 23, 1 in 24. That’s like, you know, maybe the number of people that’s on a city bus with you. I mean, you’re frequently in groups of 23 or 24. And one of you is going to get colon cancer in your lifetime.
And even, you know, large companies, you know, you’re part of a thousand person company and you’re, you know, 40 years old, four of you are going to get colon cancer in that company. And statistically, and so it’s just, it’s becoming a pretty big deal. And what’s also scary is they, we don’t know why. A lot of the people who are getting diagnosed at a young age, they’re not overweight, they are healthy, they, they exercise, they just don’t fit kind of the, the risk profiles that you might expect.
And so physicians are looking at a lot of other, or scientists are looking at other environmental factors, but they really just have not, they don’t have a really solid smoking gun or a lead that is really explaining this narrative. And so if you can’t really like, you know, with lifestyle, be sure that you’re going to be protected from a top cancer. You know, fortunately, we do have a procedure that can swoop in and really help reduce those risks.
So I think that’s why colonoscopy is so important, is that we feel kind of helpless just using lifestyle. I exercise, I eat salad for every lunch and still I got it. And so what am I supposed to do? And I think that’s what I’m hearing about all the time, is that people are getting it, shouldn’t be getting it.
And I have to think it’s not a binary thing. It’s not a matter of having it or not having it or detecting it or not detecting it. The earlier you detect it, obviously with any cancer, the better. Talk a bit about the importance of getting it early. If you detect it late, I imagine there may be cases where you can’t do anything.
Yeah, I mean, colon cancer start, you know, caused by polyps. And we can, we don’t know when people are starting to grow their polyps and we don’t know why. And, and so a lot of more research needs to be done. But we do know that a polyp is a precursor to colon cancer. And so, and they have, they don’t have symptoms. There really is no way to find out if you have a polyp, especially a small one, without getting a colonoscopy.
I had three polyps when I had my first colonoscopy at age 38. One was already a tumor, and so it was too late, you know, for me to prevent it. But those polyps are probably growing in with me, in me for years beforehand. And so I think that’s. The conversation is actually around polyps. How do we start talking about the existence of polyps, kind of the nature of them, and getting people curious about whether or not they have polyps?
Unfortunately, even if they’re curious, they can’t do much about it until 45, when their insurance pays for it. Unless they’ve got a couple grand sitting around that they just want to blow on a colonoscopy. Personally, I’d rather buy a handbag than a colonoscopy if I’m most people enough, a couple grand. But still, we have to start somewhere. And getting people curious about their body and whether or not they have polyps, at least then they will be much more motivated to immediately get their colonoscopy scheduled. At their 45th birthday today, they’re waiting years on average to get their first colonoscopy. Why?
Probably anxiety and the fact that they don’t know why they should get it in the first place. And a lot of cancer is happening from between when people turn 45 to when they finally get their first colonoscopy, which is usually in their early 50s.
Wow. All right. And I’ll underline here again, it’s not a big deal, folks. You don’t need to wait.
Not a big deal.
It’s not a big deal.
The way I talk about it, it’s a fast. A cleanse and a nap.
And a day off. You know, it’s. You feel great.
If I could mention one other thing, and it’s important of understanding your family history, that’s the other big educational shift here, is regardless of who you are and what your background is, people need to start becoming comfortable with asking the questions of their parents and their grandparents, but quite honestly, their parents. And that’s not something that most people. Most families are comfortable talking about. It’s the one thing no one wants to talk about.
What happened to Mom, what happened to Dad, what happened to Grandma and Grandpa. No one knows. We have to start having those hard conversations because if you understand that you have a family history, you can get screened early. That gives you the opening to go and do that, and that saves lives.
Having large polyps is actually family history. And so having a conversation with your parents, not just about whether or not they had colon cancer, but whether or not they have have a history of polyps or a history of a large polyp that is just as powerful and they should find that out and then tell their physicians if that is true and they do have a family history of polyps and large polyps.
And Kurt, I don’t know what is the chicken or what is the egg in terms of getting people to test earlier and getting people covered for earlier tests. And just. Is this something that industry needs to create a clinical case around and is that something you’re doing? Do you begin trying to get folks who are younger to go through a trial and to get tests and to show what can be detected earlier? What’s the next step and how do you encourage folks to get screened?
I think it comes back to really the change in how corporations like Olympus and many others in this industry have opened themselves up to being part of the global conversation and not just working with physicians. Physicians do a tremendous job in running studies of their own to create clinical data that would say that you need to get screened at this age or that age. But the responsibility we have is to continue openly having these conversations right here that would get out to tens of thousands of people to talk about.
Have you had a family discussion about this? Do you know why that’s important? Did you know that this many people have early onset colorectal cancer and it’s completely preventable if you get it early? Those are all things that they sound so simple right here we sit talking about it. It sounds very logical, but there’s this kind of wall that I see that exists between the people that live in the industry or like Brooks have experienced it and than everyone else in the world. And those are the avenues we’re going to use to get. There are podcasts like this. Blog posts, the non traditional media outlets that are going to continue to have the conversations and push the narratives out to the, to the general public so that they start to understand that there are significant needs in their health earlier than most people would imagine. Because if I’m a standard example, when I was in my 30s, nothing was going to touch me, right? I’m young, I’m healthy, I’ve got a young family. Of course I don’t have anything to worry about for another 10 or 15 years.
That’s just not the case. And everybody knows it, but nobody wants to talk about it. So like many things, we just have to drive the conversation and be willing to push into an uncomfortable space, which you go back to what? Brooks and I talk about this all the time. What I love about her messaging is it’s trying to make something very uncomfortable. Fun. Talking about a colonoscopy. Who’s doing that?
More and more people than you would think, actually, these days, if you saw the. There was a Super Bowl commercial where they referenced a colonoscopy. I won’t talk about the brand, but they actually said, I can’t do this. I got a colonoscopy.
Yeah, it’s getting out there. And of course, I did see the Ryan Reynolds video, so great job with that. We’ll wrap up with just a few. In just 30 seconds, Brooke, what’s the message that you want folks to walk away from at the very end of this podcast?
I just want people to know that many believe that colonoscopies prevent colon cancer and that it’s a cancer worth preventing. They can get more information about what I’m doing at www.worldclassclothing.com. They can purchase anything there. They can also donate to the foundation where all the net profits go to paying for reducing barriers for colonoscopies in underinsured communities, where it’s not just awareness, it is many other barriers that keep them from getting screened.
And so that’s. That’s something that they can do in addition. And also they can go, you know, and of course, talk to their doctors about family history and finding out if they personally have polyps.
Great. Kurt, last 30 seconds to you. What message should people walk away with?
First one would be, don’t ignore the obvious. Don’t ignore your body. If you have blood in your stool, that’s not normal. So you have to start investigating that. You have to ask questions. You have to be your own advocate. That’s probably the great takeaway. Advocate for yourself. Push. If you don’t get the answer you want, find another doctor. Keep pushing, because something’s not right. Hopefully it’s just a hemorrhoid. Great.
Then off you go. Those are easy, right? Comparatively. But there’s the flip side of that. It could be something much worse, and too many people just ignore those things and move on. So that would be the one thing, and I think the second thing is a message that has to come out of this is understand that ethnicity does play a role in your risk profile. According to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, Black Americans, it’s the second highest mortality rate and incidence rates of colorectal cancer in America.
They are 35% more likely to die from colorectal cancer. Those are facts. And you have to, when you hear that, hopefully people take action on that. It’s not just your age, it’s not just early onset because you’re young. But our backgrounds play a big role in that, regardless of what they are. So understanding that, asking those questions of your physician as well, am I at higher risk because I’m this or that background?
Those are important things. So I think I’d say that might be the most important thing for people to go and understand.
Excellent. Both in very important messages. My last message will be, it’s not a big deal. Just do it. It’s not a big deal. Stop it.
Might even enjoy it.
You might even enjoy it. Who doesn’t enjoy a good nap? That’s for sure. All right, well, Kurt, Brooks, thank you so much for joining us in the podcast.
Thanks so much Tom. Good to meet you.
Well, that is a wrap. Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of the OlympusTalks podcast. Thanks to Brooks Bell and Kurt Cannon for joining us. And of course, a big thank you to our corporate partner Olympus for helping to make this podcast series possible. In our next episode you’ll hear a great patient story and discussion about the prevalence of pancreatic cancer and the caretaking experience. For more episodes of OlympusTalks, please go to www.olympusamerica.com/podcasts. You can also subscribe to the DeviceTalks Podcast Network and you can follow us on LinkedIn. And while you’re there connecting with, connect with myself, Tom Salemi, Editorial Director and our Managing Editor, Kayleen Brown, who put this episode OlympusTalks together.
That’s it folks. Really appreciate having you here on the OlympusTalks podcast. Tune in to our next episode for another great MedTech story. Take care everybody.
The EVIS X1™ endoscopy system is not designed for cardiac applications. Using other combinations of equipment may cause ventricular fibrillation or seriously affect the cardiac function of the patient. Improper use of endoscopes may result in patient injury, infection, bleeding, and/or perforation. Complete indications, contraindications, warnings, and cautions are available in the Instructions for Use (IFU).
