Turning the tide: eliminating cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is now preventable. We need to think and act across the whole clinical pathway, from vaccination to screening to diagnosis and to treatment. Dr Tania Slater will talk about flipping the narrative and Prof Lawton will address the collective action steps needed to eliminate the burden of HPV disease.
Tania Slater nō Ngāti Kahu, Ngāpuhi is a senior research fellow at Te Tātai Hauora o Hine National Centre for Women’s Health Research Aotearoa at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington.
The focus of Tania’s work is equitable health outcomes for whānau Māori and this has spanned cancer prevention, screening, detection, diagnosis, treatment and palliative care. Tania has worked across academia, government, NGO and private sectors.
Her PhD research explored the role and potential of community care for Māori with cancer. She has built on this work project managing an implementation trial of HPV self-testing in Te Taitokerau.
Breaking down the barriers to colposcopy: community co-located colposcopy clinics
Community co-located colposcopy clinics have been established in Te Whanganui a Tara at an urban marae and Kaupapa Māori General Practices, aiming to increase access and facilitate colposcopy attendance. Wāhine and whānau experiences are central to clinic design.
Judy is the Lead Investigator on a $1.4 million Health Research Council Project Implementation Grant for the development and evaluation of community co-located clinics across the Wellington region.
Outside of work, Judy is a keen scuba diver and award winning underwater photographer.
Te waka wahine hauora - the woman's health bus, the next stage in the story
Achieving the goal of 70% of women screened using a high-performance test by the age of 35, and again by the age of 45; and 90% of women with pre-cancer treated and 90% of women with invasive cancer managed for all groups in Aotearoa is going to require some outside of hospital approaches.
Te Waka Wahine Hauora The Woman's Health Bus is trying to take care to the community to breakdown barriers.
We will be presenting the next stage of this story with the use of point of care HPV and offer of same day colposcopy
Helen is a mountain biker and a skier and in her spare time she runs the Woman's Health Bus and is Acting Head for the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women's Health Oranga Wāhine in the Dunedin School of Medicine. She is also a later surgical abortion provider.