CRC POP: Arming Newly Diagnosed CRC Patients With Useful Resources

Brian Dooreck, MD, of the Gastrointestinal Diagnostic Centers, Pembroke Pines, Florida, spoke with the Colon Cancer Foundation about their newly launched Colorectal Cancer Provider Outreach Program (CRC POP)—it’s evolution and mission. CRC POP aims to arm newly diagnosed colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and their caregivers with resources that can support them through their diagnosis and treatment.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself: your personal and academic background and your interests?

My name is Dr. Brian Dooreck. I am a gastroenterologist focused on GI [gastrointestinal] and liver disease. I trained at the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital and have been in clinical practice for 15 years in South Florida, seeing patients for all GI-related issues. My training goes back to New York, Boston, Tel Aviv, NYC, and Miami. As a clinical gastroenterologist, I am quite involved with my patients in a relatively busy practice, but I am also engaged in other aspects of the medical, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial worlds.

CRC POP was just an idea a few months ago that quickly became reality. What I have repeatedly experienced over the years is that when we diagnose people with colorectal cancer, we’re telling them that they have a problem. As they are waking up from sedation [following a colonoscopy], we tell them: ‘You have a problem and this is what we need to do: you need to get labs, you need to get a CAT scan, you need to see a surgeon, you need to get the follow-up biopsies and then see me in a week or two. We will get through this; we will work together.’

You can read the rest of Dr. Dooreck’s interview here.

Lakshmi Yeturu is an intern with the Colon Cancer Foundation.