Cancer in Iowa
Update: 99 Counties Project
The Iowa Cancer Registry at the University of Iowa College of Public Health continues to plug away at their 99 Counties Project. Dr. Mary Charlton, Professor of Epidemiology and the UI-CPH and Director of the Iowa Cancer Registry and her staff have visited around 25 counties so for this year. Their objective, to provide more granular, county-specific cancer data with community members, public health officials and healthcare providers has been impactful and is vitally important in this moment in Iowa’s cancer epidemic.
I assume it will take the 99 Counties Project another 18 months to get to each of Iowa’s 99 counties. I believe, however, that they will get it done. For Iowans who live in counties like Polk, Story or Linn that may not sound like such a big deal. But for Iowans who live in Lyon, Allamakee, Fremont, Lee or, perhaps, Fayette or counties like that, well, information just does not flow out to those Iowans in the same way. And renowned experts do not often make their way out to the corners of the state either.
That is one reason why I applaud Mary Charlton and the Iowa Cancer Registry. I have written about this and other reasons before:
The following is from a 99 Counties Project email notice I received today:
We would like to invite you to attend an upcoming meeting in a county [near you] (or maybe one that's close to your heart). All meetings can be attended virtually, and some have an in-person option.
Emmet County (July 15 @ Noon | Register here)
Clay County (July 24 @ 5 PM | Register here)
Ida County (July 31 @ 1 PM | Register here)
Delaware County (September 15 @ 8 AM | Register here)
Jones County (September 16 @ 4 PM | Save the Date)
Appanoose County (September 25 @ 12:30 PM | Register here)
Wapello County (October 1 @ 10 AM | Register here)
For the latest information about the project, including upcoming meetings and county-specific slides from previous sessions, please visit: https://iowacancerregistry.org/99
Questions? Contact Rachel Schramm (schramm@canceriowa.org).
In case my readers are not aware, the 99 Counties Project presentations that have been scheduled, or already presented, are all calendared on the 99 Counties Project page, and I highly recommend that you all look up and plug into these data presentations. And make a plan to go to your county presentation, get the information first-hand and ask your questions. The ICR needs to hear from you.
I attended one 99 Counties Project presentation (Bremer County) and reviewed the presentations and data presented at the others that have already occurred. I promise you, if you show up and ask your questions, regardless of how hard-hitting, you will at a minimum start a meaningful dialogue with ICR staff that will be helpful to you and will help shape their work for the coming year as well.
Stand up, plug in, find out and speak out with what you learn.
As I have said in previous writings… Read the 2025 Cancer in Iowa report.
172,000 Iowans who are survivors of cancer is a shocking number. And those people, because they are real people and not just a number, deserve our attention.
Read the report.
Every single piece of research, every shred of information, will be necessary to confirm the truth of damages caused by the actions of greedy immoral corporations and complicit politicians. It’s the truth of facts that matters and will ultimately bring justice to us all. Uncommon courage, by determined individuals, who are relentlessly committed to doing the right things. Bless your unheralded, but vitally important efforts. The work of heroes.