The UF Health Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement office facilitated two live webinars on cancer and COVID-19 that reached almost 650 people.
Cancer in the Time of Coronavirus, a webinar with Chris Cogle, M.D., and Amar Kelkar, M.D., was hosted by the Florida Cancer Control and Research Advisory Council and North Central Florida Cancer Control Collaborative (NCFCCC) on April 3. Cogle and Kelkar provided information for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and providers on how to best navigate cancer treatment and survivorship during the coronavirus pandemic. The Community Outreach and Engagement office was instrumental in getting this off the ground, and there were 609 registrants and 409 attendees, most of whom were in the state of Florida.
The second event took place on April 15; COVID-19: What People with Cancer Need to Know was co-sponsored by the Community Outreach and Engagement office, NCFCCC, and Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE). Merry-Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO, was the speaker and discussed how to navigate cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this webinar, 232 people attended. Within Florida there were hotspots in Alachua and Leon counties, but most notable was Community Outreach and Engagement office’s reach nationally. This was a bicoastal event in the U.S., and there were four international viewers from Mexico, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
The first webinar was promoted regionally/statewide, and the second was also promoted nationally thanks to our collaborators at FORCE. The bicoastal and international reach highlights the importance of keeping an active and broad set of community relations, such as we have cultivated with FORCE and Sue Friedman, D.V.M., founder and executive director of FORCE, who the Community Outreach and Engagement office hosted as the inaugural speaker for its seminar series.
Please reach out to the Community Outreach and Engagement office at COE@cancer.ufl.edu with any webinar ideas or questions.
