Louisville CyberKnife Hosts Educational Cancer Dinner

On Monday, May 16, Louisville CyberKnife hosted a continuing medical education (CME) dinner for local physicians, primary care providers, hospital staff, and other local clinicians.  

Continuing medical education consists of educational activities which serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession.  When a healthcare worker attends a CME event, they earn credit from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), a nonprofit organization responsible for accrediting institutions that offer CME to physicians and other healthcare professionals. 

The topic for the dinner was “Reducing the Burden of Lung Cancer in Kentucky: A Focus on Early Diagnosis” and a multidisciplinary discussion was led by Neal Dunlap M.D., Radiation Oncologist at Louisville CyberKnife, with Victor van Berkel, M.D., Thoracic Surgeon at University of Louisville, Amanda Carricato, M.D., Radiologist at University of Louisville, and Dana Lee, Lung Nurse Navigator, as presenters.  The panel discussed the importance of lung screening, early diagnosis, treatment options, and the advantages of treating with the CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System. 

The topic was a timely issue because according to an article in USA Today, about 10,000 Kentuckians a year die from cancer, the highest rate in the nation.  Experts say the biggest culprit is lung cancer, which strikes and kills Kentuckians at rates 50% higher than the national average, but Kentucky’s death rates also rank in the Top 10 nationally for breast, colorectal, and cervical cancers.  Kentucky’s lung cancer numbers from the National Cancer Institute are staggering.  Incidence per 100,000 people: 92.4, compared with 60.4 nationally and mortality per 100,000: 68.8, compared with 45 nationally. 

The CME dinner was a huge success with 37 people in attendance.  In addition to physicians and primary care providers, several attendees from Kentucky One Health administration, including Mark Milburn, VP of Kentucky One Health Network, Barb Kruse, Director of Multidisciplinary Clinics, and Hilary Deskins, Manager of Cancer Prevention Services, were present for the dinner. 

Louisville CyberKnife was proud to be a part of the event and looks forward to hosting more educational dinners for the healthcare workers in our community.  We hope that the topic discussed and material shared was valuable information for the physicians to take back their practices. 

For more information on how Louisville CyberKnife treats lung cancer with CyberKnife technology, please click here.