Read highlights from our interview with Melissa Wheeler below and find the complete conversation here.

Could you speak a bit about the Disparities & Outreach program at Levine Cancer Institute, which you created? 

The Atrium Health Levine Cancer (AHLC) Disparities and Outreach team reduces cancer health disparities and eliminates inequalities in care in medically under-served populations within the AHLC service area across North and South Carolina. Our mission is to improve the overall health and well-being of communities through targeted cancer prevention education, free screening services and the removal of barriers that can impede access to high-quality cancer care. We serve over 30,000 individuals each year, across a 30 county catchment area, through a wide variety of programming. We operate under a "whole human care" philosophy in which we assess all individuals for impediments to quality of life and stand ready to navigate to the appropriate resources. Common barriers we encounter are lack of adequate food and/or transportation, financial access barriers and a lack of trust. In the past 10 years we have provided over 20,000 free cancer screenings, connected those screened and their families to vital resources and developed more than 150 robust partnerships to create ecosystems of care. Our team is composed of an interdisciplinary group of community champions including clinical experts and public health "boots on the ground" resource experts.

What kind of attitude helped you push through some of the inherent challenges in innovating and changing the way things are approached? 

In 2017, recognizing the ever-increasing mortality rates for those with lung cancer in our country, our outreach team designed and launched the first mobile lung cancer screening bus in the country. Many said it could not be done, but 8 years later similar units have observed our outcomes and have begun launching their own programs. It all started with just the idea alone, one that we couldn't walk away from despite there being many naysayers at the beginning. People were dying, and if we stopped because it was too hard, lung cancer deaths would keep going. Public health is always challenging, but it requires a commitment to what we know to be true; that all individuals deserve equitable opportunities to receive high quality care. Also, if we become paralyzed by something which might be too big to tackle, then communities will suffer as a result. No cake is ever baked perfectly the first time. The only way to ever bake a great cake is to turn the oven on and go back and refine over time. 

A fair amount of your work in public health and oncology includes mobile units; could you talk a bit about the strategy and benefits of these interventions and programs? 

We have to think about the human experience. There can be obvious tangible barriers like transportation that mobile units avoid. But when we think about the human experience, we have to consider why companies like Amazon and DoorDash have become increasingly cornerstone. Most people prefer to receive care, services and support in an environment they are familiar with, where they feel safe,where they feel seen, where they feel known. We park our mobile unit off the bus line or at community free clinics, churches, grocery stores or other community service organizations where people have been accessing other important resources or navigating the environment. It also normalizes cancer screening and accessing health care like nothing else can because individuals can organically walk up and ask our team "what are y'all doing in our neighborhood?" And we always stand ready to respond to the questions and address the needs.