What is the impact of the support that we are offering?
“It significantly eases the financial burden for women with breast cancer who require therapy that can be cost prohibitive."
What would happen to the women receiving the care if they weren't able to benefit from these Resources?
“Because Healing Hands has identified a specific patient subset, it can benefit these young women with breast cancer as opposed to the Ministry of Health that deals with everyone who has a cancer diagnosis, old, young, male, female, metastatic, advanced or early, while we have limited it to early that can lead to a cure so it allows for curative intent.”
Do the financial challenges that women face lead them not to seek care?
“There are a lot of barriers to preventative care. For breast cancer, we have to encourage screening mammography, which sometimes presents a barrier re: cost, because they have to travel to the center to get it done. There are subsidized programs, but sometimes there are cultural barriers or they are afraid of finding out that something is wrong. Not only is it financial, but there are also the socio-cultural barriers that exist.”
Do you feel that there are unique circumstances in Jamaica that make navigating the health system challenging?
“Yes, because the care we offer is centralized. There are two regional centers on the island, but we have patients in every parish, so they have to travel in order to access care, which can be costly, takes time and makes it more difficult.”
“I think that’s a major barrier. So, we need to have more oncology services in order to serve rural areas and places that are far from the center. I think that would help.”
“And of course the financial aspects of care. Our economy generally is poor, patients are underinsured, we have a lot of uninsured patients so that makes it very difficult.”
Approximately how many cancer patients do you see each day?
“It’s a combined clinic so we see patients with colon cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, but breast cancer is, by far, the most common cancer that we treat in this clinic.”
What led to your decision to sign on, collaborate and work with Healing Hands?
“I think we have the same goals. I believe that we need to address breast cancer
undertreatment because that contributes to disparities where black women in the Caribbean and elsewhere are not doing as well. So if we can try to improve the outcomes by offering the standard of care and start bringing those barriers down, as well as the access to care for our patients, then we have a common goal.”
Biography
DR. SHERAY WARD CHIN
Dr. Chin began her medical training at the University of the West Indies, graduating with Honors from the M.B.B.S. programme. She went on to attain the Doctor of Medicine in Internal Medicine post-graduate degree. It was during her post-graduate years that she developed her passion for caring for patients with cancer. This led her to the sub-specialty of Medical Oncology. In her pursuit she was awarded the inaugural Chang Caribbean Fellowship scholarship to complete her Medical Oncology fellowship at the University of Toronto. Her mandate was to return home to make her contribution to quality cancer care in Jamaica.
Dr. Chin has been working as a Consultant in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine at the University Hospital of the West Indies since 2008. She is also a Lecturer in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI and has worked to enhance postgraduate training in Oncology, to better equip specialists to serve the needs of Jamaica and the Caribbean. She believes in a multi-disciplinary approach to patient care and helped to develop multi-disciplinary Oncology team meetings to optimize outcomes.
Dr. Chin specializes in the management of solid tumors, including breast, gastrointestinal (e.g. colon), genitourinary (e.g. prostate) and lung cancer amongst others, and is involved in cancer research in these areas.
In her clinical practice, she develops a personalized approach for each patient after careful assessment and treatment planning. She has expertise in anti-cancer therapies (chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapies and biologics), and in application of molecular testing (including tumor profiling and genomic testing) as part of precision cancer care.
Preventive Oncology is an important part of her practice, as she believes that cancer prevention and risk reduction is essential to reduce the burden of cancer. This includes individual risk assessment for cancer (including genetic risk assessment/ genetic testing, lifestyle factors) and personalized cancer screening, as well as cancer risk reduction strategies.
Dr. Sheray Chin is a founding member of Island Medical Specialists and works with the IMS Oncology team to offer the best possible care for each patient through their cancer journey. Her goals are to reduce cancer health disparities and the optimization of cancer care/ outcomes in Jamaica.