As April comes to a close, it is time to say goodbye to the cold weather, and welcome the warmer spring weather of May. It is time to trade in your toque for a wide-brimmed sun hat! The start of May is when we as Canadians get to start enjoying the true spring weather we all know and love. Despite this, it is important to remember that May’s beautiful weather brings with it the start of the highest UV index period of the year. Fittingly, May 2nd, the first Monday of May 2016, kicks off Melanoma Awareness month, with a day dedicated internationally to skin cancer awareness. We at FUSE Health are taking this opportunity to highlight our issue-driven culture and show our support for the Melanoma Network of Canada (MNC) and the Save Your Skin Foundation (SYSF), to “Change the Conversation Together and Shed Some Light on Melanoma because it’s #NotJustSkinCancer”.
I have always liked the start of a New Year. It’s an opportunity to purge the old and start anew… or in my case archive my old e-mails and start with < 50 in my inbox. And while resolutions may come and go, I do have one ritual that I try and maintain year over year.
Quite some time ago I had a co-worker who was quite shy, but also vital to a product team I was working on, and thus the idea emerged. I choose someone, personal or professional, who becomes my Person of the Year. They don’t know it. I, mindfully over the course of the year, try new (different, better) things to improve my current relationship with them. Sometimes it has been to get to know the person better to have things to chat about other than work. One year it was making a point of spending more time with someone that I had lost touch with. Other times it has been to improve my dialogue with someone (yes mom, you once were my person of the year).
The one constant – the goal is set in January and surpassed by December.
“Mindfulness isn’t difficult; we just need to remember to do it.”
~Sharon Salzberg
The next time you are in a meeting and thinking, “I wish they would speak up …” or “I’d really like to know how they got those Raptor tickets …”, you probably can. Give the concept a try, even for a month, and I bet you won’t be disappointed.
As part of our commitment to maintaining strong subject matter expertise in Oncology, a couple of members from the FUSE Health team had the privilege of attending the 9th Annual Canadian Melanoma Conference in Whistler, BC (February 19-22, 2015).
The conference kicked-off with a touching survivorship story by Kathy Barnard, President and Founder of the Save Your Skin Foundation. Kathy shared her personal journey through the fight against stage IV malignant melanoma, after being given six months to live following her life-changing diagnosis in 2003. Almost 12 years later, Kathy stood strong at the podium on Friday morning and for the first time since being cancer-free in 2007, she proudly declared herself a survivor of melanoma. Kathy also shared the moving stories of other melanoma survivors, to officially launch the Foundation’s new survivorship initiative, I’m Living Proof.
Save You Skin Foundation video on survivorship in melanoma.
Survivorship was a key theme at this year’s melanoma conference, as presentation after presentation continued to outline the improved survival benefits of newer therapies compared to previous standards of care. In this regard, discussion on immuno-oncology therapies dominated, as presenters recapped data from the different pivotal studies for the CTLA-4 (ipilumumab) and PD-1/PDL-1 (nivolumab, pembrolizumab) immune-mediated checkpoint inhibitors. With over 70% of previously untreated patients taking nivolumab or pembrolizumab remaining alive at 1-year, recent therapeutic advances reinforce the the concept of survivorship for patients with advanced melanoma and offer comfort and hope to those fighting the disease. Delegates were quick to comment that they eagerly await results of ongoing studies on combination therapy and maintenance therapy approaches with immuno-oncology agents, as these approaches may offer further benefits to their patients.
At FUSE Health, we pride ourselves on our complement of scientific expertise and creative talent. On January 29th, we let our artistic sides take charge for a good cause when we participated in a Paint Nite event in support of Boost for Kids.
Paint Nite is hosted across the country at local pubs and restaurants, where participants socialize and enjoy drinks as they’re guided step-by-step to create a painting. After a great meal at the Hot House in Toronto, we each donned a painting smock and took a place in front of a blank canvas with our paint supplies for the evening – four brushes, a cup of water, and a palette of red, blue, yellow, black, and white paints. After a few words about Boost for Kids from our talented instructors (who were also Boost for Kids staff), the art lesson got underway. Our assignment – a scene of three brightly coloured trees reflected in water. We were given free rein to follow the example as closely (or not) as we liked. Everyone started off a little timidly as we got the hang of mixing colours and took our first few hesitant strokes. After all, when you give 12 meticulous individuals a paint brush, you can expect a bit of self-criticism. But the atmosphere was so relaxing and non-judgmental that within only a few minutes, our inner artists were beginning to emerge. It was so wonderful to see each painting take shape, with each member of the FUSE Health team taking their own creative spin on the scene. The time flew by and after a couple of hours, a lot of laughs, and great tunes to paint to, we each had a masterpiece to bring home. (more…)
As part of the Rotman School of Business Speaker Series, I recently had the opportunity to attend the Canadian book launch of Sticky Branding by Jeremy Miller. In his opening dialogue he transported me back to my youth with an example based on the game of Red Rover, Red Rover. The takeaway point relating to his book was that as Red Rover begins we are in a “pick me, pick me” mode and want to be chosen first on a team amongst the row of competitors on the field. Fast forward to today and we are still in that choose me first mindset with our brands. (more…)
We are already near the end of January and I have a feeling a lot of us have broken our “healthy” resolutions.
A recent US study published in the The FASEB Journal, looked at the grocery shopping habits of 207 New York households between the time periods of July to Thanksgiving (Baseline Period), Thanksgiving to New Years (Holiday Period), and New Years to March (Post-holiday Period). Here’s what they found:
Shoppers increased their grocery spending during the Holiday Period relative to the Baseline Period, as expected
75% of the additional Holiday spending was on less-healthy items
When comparing the Post-holiday Period to the Holiday Period, shoppers increased their spending by 53% – astonishing!
In the Post-holiday Period, although there was a five-fold increase in healthier food purchases, the amount of unhealthy foods remained the same.
So in other words, instead of substituting the potato chips with kale, shoppers would buy both. The investigators concluded, “Despite resolutions to eat more healthfully after New Year’s, consumers may adjust to a new “status quo” of increased unhealthy-food purchasing during the holidays, and vicariously fulfill their New Year’s resolutions by spending more on healthy foods.”. (more…)
