Community Outreach and Engagement

The Rogel Cancer Center (Rogel) Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) broadly supports the center’s mission to reduce the burden of cancer and advance access to care in our catchment area (CA) via transdisciplinary research, education, patient care and community outreach. Rogel COE leads all aspects of the center’s COE efforts, including strategic planning, establishing and propelling the specific aims, launching new initiatives and evaluating the impact of COE activities. During the last period, Rogel expanded its CA to the entire State of Michigan. The decision to expand the CA is aligned with an expanded University of Michigan (U-M) clinical enterprise as well as new collaborations and partnerships communities outside of our prior CA, along with new community based research and intervention activities across the full State. The decision on expansion was also based on input from the Rogel Community Advisory Board (RCAB) and External Advisory Board (EAB). Our statewide CA comprises ~10 million residents (versus 5 million in the prior CA). Overall, ageadjusted cancer mortality rates are higher in Michigan than the US (166/100,00 vs. 156/100,000), with Michigan ranked 13th worst in the country for cancer mortality. We have identified key behavioral risk factors along with nine priority cancers that inform and shape our goals for impact and our research, training, education, and outreach efforts. The risk factors are: colorectal cancer screening, cigarette and alcohol use, physical activity and obesity, and poor mental and physical health. The priority cancers are: bladder, breast, colon, liver, lung, myeloma, prostate, pancreas and uterine cancer.