The following is a guest post by Jessie C. Gruman, PhD who is the president and founder of the non-profit organization Center for Advancing Health. It was originally posted on the Prepared Patient Forum blog on January 11th.

By Jessie Gruman. “Buck up. You are going to feel bad for a year.”

This was my chemotherapy nurse a year ago, returning a call I made to my oncologist. I had left a message asking whether there was something he could do to help me. Should I feel this horrible following three action-packed months that included stomach cancer surgery and aggressive chemotherapy? 

The answer, at least as far as my nurse was concerned, was “Yes.” 

And she was right. It did take a year to regain my energy and feel well again.

The new year set me reflecting about what I’ve learned about being sick over the past 12 months that only the experience itself could teach me:

You know that old Supremes song, “You Can’t Hurry Love”? I learned that you can’t necessarily hurry healing either, even if you work hard at it. A week after that call to my oncologist – still feeling rocky – I joined a local gym’s “$30 for 30 days” New Year’s special to try to revive my cardiovascular fitness. For each of the next 30 days, I trudged down there, got on that Nordic Track machine and forced myself to flail about for 40 laborious minutes. On most days last year, I made myself walk at least a mile and practice yoga. I did my level best to choke down a tiny healthy snack almost every waking hour. Often, doing these simple tasks took all the energy and will I possessed. But I was committed, convinced that if I did them, I would get better faster.

And it still took a year before I felt normal again. How frustrating was that? (more…)

By Janice Lynch Schuster. Public health officials are sounding the alarm over the looming catastrophe of an aging America, a time in which 78 million Boomers will arrive at old age, only to find a health care system that can’t meet their needs or sustain their lives. Social and financial costs will be devastating: Boomers will live longer and with more chronic conditions than any other generation; they will need more years of care than any of our current systems can provide. Half of those who live to the age of 65 will require nursing home care at some point in their lives; half of those who make it to 85 will experience dementia.

A health care system predicated on acute illness and injury is not equipped to meet the long-term, ongoing needs of people who have multiple chronic conditions—a situation Boomers will face. In short, it’s a disaster we know will happen, but whose impact we might, with planning, lessen.

So how could we prepare? We might take a page from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), which, in the aftermath of Katrina, stepped up preparedness planning. Indeed, it  has outlined eight principles of disaster management. These principles will sound familiar to anyone interested in creating a better health care system. According to the disaster planning experts, good plans are comprehensive, progressive, risk-driven, integrated, collaborative, coordinated, flexible, and professional.

These principles will sound remarkably familiar to anyone enaged in public health and health care. Where today America has fragmented, uncoordinated systems of care, we need a future in which coordinated, comprehensive care is the norm. Where today there are unconnected silos of activity, we need to foster improvements that lead to collaborative systems, ones in which each participant knows and understands how, when, and why to interact with other elements of the system.

America needs a progressive system, in which, in the words of FEMA, “managers anticipate future disasters and take preventive and preparatory measures to build disaster-resistant and disaster-resilient communities.” Mapped to the health care system, a progressive system would mitigate the ways in which things go wrong in our current system, fix those errors, and learn from them to prevent their recurrence. (more…)

By Casey Quinlan. It’s not easy hearing your name and [insert dread diagnosis here]. I know this only too well after having to find the funny in my own journey through cancer. Cancer is, however, most often a diagnosis that you fight to a defined end. What’s it like to find the funny in a chronic condition like multiple sclerosis?

I have a number of friends who are battling MS, one of whom, Amy Gurowitz, shared a link on Facebook the other day to Jim Sweeney’s online empire of improv humor and chronic disease. Jim’s MS journey started with vision problems in 1985, he was officially diagnosed in 1990, and has been dealing with the disease – finding the funny most of the time – ever since.

Jim’s body of work includes decades of live improv, his one-man show “My MS & Me,” which you can hear on the BBC Radio 1 site. His MS has progressed to the point that he’s now in a wheelchair, and his public presence is mostly limited to Twitter, where his profile describes him as a housebound hedonist (hey, it made ME laugh) and YouTube.

How much courage does it take to laugh out loud, in public, at an incurable disease? Jim certainly has courage at the level required.

Other examples of funny-or-die in managing chronic disease include Mark S. King’s fabulously funny My Fabulous Disease blog (Mark is HIV-positive). The aforementioned Amy Gurowitz laughs out loud about her MS in a number of places, including MS Soft Serve and MS-LOL (life of learning OR laugh out loud, you pick).

On the provider side, there are a number of docs who are breaking up the waiting rooms and wards.

Dr. Patricia Raymond is a gastroenterologist whose mission in life is to take the “ick” out of colonoscopies. She bills herself as The Fabulous Butt Meddler. Since she looks like Bette Midler, the joke works on every level.

Dr. Zubin Damania, a/k/a ZDoggMD (“Slightly Funnier Than Placebo”), is a hospital medicine specialist in Palo Alto as well as a veritable buffet of medical humor, some G-rated and some most definitely NSFW. His videos alone guarantee hours of laughter. (more…)

By Glenna Crooks. Everyone now and again, you meet someone who rocks your world – in a good way. It happened to me recently. I treated myself to a workshop and among those attending was a young woman with such inquisitiveness, openness, honesty and humor that I instantly became a fan. She was comfortable in her own skin, passionate about her beliefs and disarming in her directness.  And, there was not a mean bone in her body. She could tell you anything – including the truth you might not want to hear –and be grateful she did.  She had rare courage and extraordinary presence for a young woman. I decided I wanted Disruptive Women readers to know her.

She has epilepsy and since November is Epilepsy Awareness Month, this is the perfect time. Please allow me to introduce you to Jessica Keenan Smith.

How do you hope Epilepsy Awareness Month will help?  

More than 70 Million children and adults worldwide are living with epilepsy. Three million of them are in the US. That’s more people than were living with HIV/AIDS in 2008. I’ll bet that surprises most people.

Of those 70 Million, for 70% there is no known cause. A little research money would go a long way toward reducing that 70% number and then to finding better treatments, and my highest hope – cures. More awareness will help drive more research funding and scientific  interest in this important area of health. That’s why an Awareness Month is helpful.

Many diseases have been around for centuries, but they have treatments – even cures. Why hasn’t epilepsy enjoyed that same happy ending?

Well, let’s start with the fact that you can’t even tell that most people with epilepsy have it unless they are actively having a seizure. Then combine this with the fact that a negative stigma still exists. Add in the fact that there are more than 40 different types of seizures and you’ve got a tough nut to crack.

These factors make epilepsy very difficult to recognize, never mind research and cure. (more…)

By Robin Strongin.  Three years ago, in September 2008, Disruptive Women in Health Care launched with an exciting program at the National Press Club (take a look at our media page to see what we had to say at the time.)

I know, I know it’s October…but hey, we are disruptive so celebrating on the exact day seems so well, ordinary.  And the past three years have been anything but ordinary.  We all had something to say about the new health reform debate and ultimate passage.  We still have much to say about the new law, as well as a multitude of other topics.

One area that I have been thinking a lot about is the exploding area of mhealth (mobile health), remote monitoring, and telehealth.  Technology alone is not the answer of course.  But technology, coupled with innovative care delivery models (think health reform), and patients, caregivers and clinicians more comfortable with smartphones, apps, data sharing and online connectivity have all contributed to a new framework of health and wellness.  Aging in Place, staying connected, eICUs, PHRs and EHRs.  Exciting stuff.

But, like most solutions in health care, success must look beyond the health sector.  Here’s what I mean by that: staying healthy can’t just take place in a health setting or even in your home.  Maintaining your health and wellness or managing your chronic disease or disability requires a connection where ever you are — in other words, Health In Place.  Young people with epilepsy and diabetes still attend school, go on vacation and use public transportation.  Elderly individuals aging in place still travel to visit gradnchildren. And, adults maintaining exercise and nutrition regimens who travel for work need to stay connected to maintain wellness.  The Health In Place concept takes this broad view and will be bringing together thought leaders from not only the health field, but the telecom, travel, automobile and real estate sectors as well. 

The organizers of the 2011 mHealth Summit were so taken with this idea that they invited Disruptive Women to launch the Health In Place or HIP initiative with a reception on December 6th–we couldn’t be more thrilled or more flattered. So SAVE THE DATE:

Health In Place (HIP)™ — Disruptive Women in Health Care is Launching a New Initiative

Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 5:00–7:00 PM
Location: Pose Ultra Lounge & Nightclub–at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor (Washington DC)

Overview: The concept of Health In Place™ is built around the idea that our homes are more than just homes, our offices are more than just workplaces, our schools are more than just places of learning, and even our cars are more than just modes of transportation. Thanks to wireless communications and emerging technologies, each of these venues has become potential health and wellness centers or HIP. No matter where we are or what we’re doing, we can be protecting and enhancing our well-being. For this facet of 21st century health care to achieve its full potential — for more Americans to have the tools to link to their caregivers, to protect against and manage illness, while monitoring their well-being — a number of public policy issues are involved, cutting across multiple disciplines from health care regulations and benefit structures to tax policy to technology incentives. That’s why Amplify Public Affairs and the Disruptive Women in Health Care® blog (along with our media partenr, The Hill) have formed the Health In Place™ Initiative — to bring together policymakers and change agents from multiple industries.

 Please join us as we unveil this new initiative.

 Speakers:

• Robin Strongin, President & CEO, Amplify Public Affairs & Creator, Disruptive Women in Health Care — Moderator
• John Marttila, President, Marttila Strategies (a national polling expert)
• John C. (Jack) Lewin, MD, Chief Executive Officer, American College of Cardiology
• Pamela Cipriano, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Professor, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Editor-in-Chief, American Nurse Today, 2010-11 Institute of Medicine Nurse Scholar-In-Residence (and a Disruptive Woman blogger)
• Halle Tecco, Founder & Managing Director of Rock Health (and a Disruptive Woman blogger)

Stay tuned for more information.  And by all means, please come out on December 6th and celebrate with us.

At three years of age, we are not only Disruptive, we are also HIP.

By Stephanie Mensh. We probably don’t need a new report to tell us this: middle class people cannot afford the cost of nursing home services or long term home health care services.    The AARP, Commonwealth Fund, and SCAN Foundation joined  forces to examine state-by-state affordability,  accessibility, choice, quality, and–interestingly–support  for family caregivers, in their first-ever “State Scorecard  on Long-Term Services and Supports for Older Adults, People  with Physical Disabilities, and Family Caregivers,”  just published earlier this month.

Caregiver supports are defined by the Scorecard to include:

• Percent of caregivers getting needed support
• Legal and system supports for caregivers
• Health tasks able to be delegated to aides.

The Scorecard showed that 77% of family caregivers who were surveyed a few years ago reported that they get emotional and social support when they need it.   Legal and system supports scores were much lower, averaging a “3″ on a 12-point scale. These supports  were defined as:  state family medical leave laws;  mandatory paid family and sick leave; protection of  caregivers from employment discrimination; the  extent of financial protection for the spouses of  Medicaid beneficiaries who receive nursing home or  long term community support services; and  assessments of the caregiver’s health, quality of  life, etc.    The researchers also proposed that family caregivers would benefit if state nursing license laws permitted aides to perform a list of key “health maintenance” activities, such as administering medications, and diabetes testing and injections. (more…)

The following is a guest post by Dr. Jessie Gruman. This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog

“My doctor can titrate my chemotherapy to the milligram but can’t tell me when I am going to die,” a friend who was struggling with his treatment for cancer complained to me a couple years ago.

Had he lived, he might have been reassured by the announcement last week of a new scale that allows clinicians to estimate the time remaining to people with advanced cancer.  He was spending his final days “living by the numbers” of his white blood cell count, the amount and size of his tumors and suspicious lesions, the dosage of various drugs and radiation treatments. And he was peeved about what he saw as a critical gap in those numbers.  He believed (hoped?) that because his cancer was quantifiable and the treatment was quantifiable, that the time remaining should be similarly quantifiable.  He needed that information to plan how to use the time that remained.

Many of us would make a different choice about knowing how long we will live when we are similarly ill.  But most of us are attracted to the certainty we attach to the numbers that precisely represent aspects of our diseases. (more…)

The following is a guest post by Janice Lynch Schuster who  works at the Altarum Institute, a new voice in the field of aging and end of life issues. This post orginally ran on July 14th on Health AGEnda.

By Janice Lynch Schuster. When I was a little girl, country singer Glen Campbell had a variety show on television called “The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour.” As I remember it, it was a good time; in my young imagination, I often confused him with my father, who I thought was just as handsome and talented and fun as Glen. I loved his songs and wanted to learn to play guitar so I could be more like him.

Sadly, Mr. Campbell has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’ disease. As most people know, Alzheimer’s is the primary cause of dementia, a gradual loss of brain function that becomes more common as we age. As the disease slowly and insidiously strips us of our thoughts and memories, it strips us of our lives and torments our loved ones in a grim process that can take years to unfold. Mr. Campbell’s decision to put a face on this awful disease by continuing to tour is a mark of real courage and heart. I don’t know how long he’ll last on the road—and early reviews, pre-diagnosis, panned him for being so forgetful and bumbling—but I hope that road takes him into some kind of good night, Rhinestone Cowboy.

Not many celebrities let us come so close. In our wild pop culture pursuit of public figures, we are eager to hear the details of their private lives—we buy up People and Star and Us by the ream. We want to know who’s pregnant, who’s with whom, who’s sleeping where, who’s in rehab, and who’s out. We want to hear about celebrities’ brave battles against one illness or another—bipolar disease or addiction, cancer or diabetes. We are thrilled when a gaunt but apparently cured Michael Douglas emerges from chemotherapy. We are sad when Patrick Swayze falls to pancreatic cancer.  And we cry when Clarence Clemmons succumbs to a stroke. We collectively mourn the deaths each week of various celebrities whose lives, we think, touched our own. (more…)

Women for a Healthy Future

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), commonly known as chronic diseases, cause two out of three deaths worldwide, and are the leading cause of death for women around the world.

We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tackle NCDs, considered to be one of the 21st century’s greatest health and development challenges. In September, world leaders will gather at the United Nations (UN) for a historic summit on NCDs. The decisions they make will impact the lives of millions.

NCDs threaten women’s lives and our children’s future. Yet, we know that 80% of cardiovascular disease and diabetes and 40% of cancers can be prevented by avoiding tobacco, increasing physical activity and eating healthy foods. It’s going to take strong commitments from the world’s leaders and sweeping policy changes to reduce women’s and children’s vulnerability to NCDs.  

As a result, organizations representing global health, women’s health, child rights, and youth perspectives have come together to form the Women for a Healthy Future movement. This movement is aligned with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon’s “Every woman. Every child” initiative and is mobilizing women from around the world to demand action against NCDs.

Raise your voices. Sign the petition. Tell your friends.

If we gather 10,000 women’s signatures, we will take them to the media, to world leaders gathered at the UN, and to business leaders. We need your support to show the world how deeply we care, and to ignite action against NCDs.

On June 9, 2011, sanofi-aventis U.S. announced the “sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge: Data, Design, Diabetes” at the National Institute of Health’s Health Data Initiative Forum. The challenge, which launched on July 1, integrates open data with a human-centered view into diabetes, and will award $220,000 in total prize money.

The challenge is designed for fast learning, so that innovators can create the needed service solutions for people living with diabetes. It brings together the richness of open data sets made available on healthdata.gov, the values of human-centered design, and the leading edge methodology of the top innovation accelerators.

Until July 31^st, innovators can submit their concepts on www.datadesigndiabetes.com.  In early August, an independent panel of expert judges (listed below) will review the submissions and five semi-finalists will be awarded $20,000 and professional mentoring to turn the concept into a prototype. In early September, the five teams will present at a demo day.  An open panel and our judges will select two finalists to receive an additional $10,000 to pilot their prototype in a real life diabetes community.  The findings and learnings from this exercise will inform the selection of a final winner who will receive an award of $100,000, along with a one- month stay at the RockHealth incubator in San Francisco to turn their prototype into a full, real solution for people living with diabetes.

Judges include:

• Jeff Hammerbacher – Founder and Chief Scientist, Cloudera
• Manny Hernandez – Founder, TuDiabetes
• Hilary Mason – Chief Scientist, Bit.ly
• Todd Park – CTO, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Sue Siegel – General Partner, MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
• Ida Sim – Director, UCSF Center for Clinical and Translational Informatics
• Dennis Urbaniak – VP U.S. Diabetes, sanofi-aventis

Diabetes is a chronic, progressive disease that has reached epidemic proportion, with 100 million people in the U.S. currently living with diabetes.  At this rate, the CDC estimates that by the year 2050 1 in 3 Americans will have diabetes. 

Visit www.datadesigndiabetes.com for more information, including criteria, official rules and deadlines.  For more updates, follow Data Design Diabetes on Twitter and Facebook.

The following is a guest post by Sheila Rittenberg the Senior Director, Advocacy and External Affairs at the National Psoriasis Foundation. During her tenure with the National Psoriasis Foundation, Ms. Rittenberg has led the organization’s transition as a leader in health advocacy and public policy, emphasizing access to care issues and increasing investments in psoriasis research. She acted as Co-Chair of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Coalition and has assumed various advisory roles including that of committee member to the Office Oregon Health Policy & Research Drug Effectiveness Review Project and member of the National Health Council, Grassroots Technical Assistance Task Force. She is an author and contributing author on advocacy and clinical consensus publications and has been a public speaker on behalf of the psoriasis community.

Shelia Rittenberg

Overhauling health care… deepest budget cuts in history… A moral battle framed around health care reform…

These are only a smattering of the emotionally charged messages inundating ordinary citizens in America. How do people stay engaged and believe in the work of the country? How do they avoid being jaded about health care reform when politicians toss around accusations and critiques about policies and the people who propose them the way we might toss a ball around with our kids?

I have always believed in the power of bringing people together and connecting them in a meaningful way to those who are creating policies for the rest of us. It’s no different when it comes to health care policy. Here at the National Psoriasis Foundation, we practice “The Three A’s” – Action, Authority and Accountability. Keeping our constituents engaged in relevant issues and problem-solving achieves a spirit of action and purpose for everyone concerned. Leveraging that advocacy helps unify “grassroots” and establish credibility and authority as the voice of the community. Communicating these successes demonstrates that our organization is accountable for the public policy changes essential to our people.

The results of bringing “ordinary people” to talk to policymakers can be profound. There is a transformative power of this work we call advocacy. In our world of psoriasis, there are countless triumphs: the woman meeting with her legislator for the first time who told me she would never look at her psoriasis the same way again; the retiree who has re-invented himself at age 70 as a firebrand psoriasis political activist; the 16-year-old who changed career plans after testifying in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the pediatric psoriasis population. The point is, taking charge through Action, Authority and Accountability can change a person’s life — and society, at the same time. (more…)

By Hope Ditto. The passing of the Affordable Care Act was intended, at least in part, to make life easier for those living with chronic medical issues –ensuring them access to affordable insurance despite their “pre-existing condition” status.

While the passage of ACA last March has improved this for many people in this situation, there are still condition-specific problems regarding insurance coverage and reimbursement that desperately need addressing.

Adi Renbaum

I recently sat down with Adi Renbaum, Senior Vice President of Health Policy and Reimbursement for The Neocure Group regarding one such issue –addressing the need of nearly half of patients with diabetes who do not make a yearly trip to the ophthalmologist. How could this be accomplished? By allowing primary care physicians to perform eye exams for diabetes patients right there in their offices via retinal imaging (capturing a digital retinal photo) and transmitting the image to an ophthalmology-based reading center for review and feedback. Adi has, in one way or another, been involved in this issue for the past decade and has seen the highs and lows of the struggle to compel insurance companies to acknowledge the need, and cover retinal imaging exams performed by primary care providers, and then reimburse physicians for these exams at a reasonable rate.  What follows are all the gritty details of this particular issue summarized from my conversation with Adi.

Several big “political” issues facing the health care community today are tangled up in issue of getting more patients with diabetes to have primary-care based retinal exams:  diabetes health policy, remote monitoring services and telemedicine and physician reimbursement economics.  It is a complicated issue – but here is what it boils down to:  People with diabetes type I or diabetes type II as a population, are at risk of developing retinopathy, which can lead to blindness if not caught in time (caught relatively early, it can be treated via laser surgery, and patients can go on living a normal life, enjoying normal vision).  For this reason, every major health organization supports diabetes guidelines that recommend annual examinations by a qualified eye care professional (American Diabetes Association, American Academy of Clinical Endocrinologist; American Academy of Ophthalmology, Veterans Administration, Indian Health Service and CMS, to name a few).  Unfortunately, the reality is that the majority of people with diabetes do not follow through on this, even while they receive all other recommended diabetes examinations.  So, what is it about the retina exams?  Many hypothesized that it was the necessity of visiting an ophthalmologist, because it required a different appointment at a different location on a different date and time.  So, if it was somehow possible to combine the retinal exams in with annual primary care visit, it seems reasonable that a greater percentage of people with diabetes would complete the yearly retinal examination.  The plan to achieve this — give primary care providers the ability to perform retinal imaging examinations in their own offices.  How would this work?  By allowing these providers to take digital retinal images, which would then be electronically transmitted to a centralized reading center, where readers trained in diabetic eye disease would assess and grade the images and send results back to the primary care provider.  One visit at one time on one day to one provider in one office would yield all the medical results the provider needs to ensure the patient is managing their diabetes well, or to direct the patient to additional treatment.  Sounds pretty cool, and pretty simple, right?

Medical experts have given this solution this seal of approval, it received FDA approval process with no problems and the American Diabetes Association changed their guidelines to include retinal imaging, when reviewed by an eye care professional,  as an acceptable form of diabetic eye exam.  All of this happened in the early 2000s.  So this should be a done deal, available in a majority of primary care offices that treat patients with diabetes, saving thousands of people from a terrible fate of vision loss and blindness every year, right? (more…)

By Robin Strongin. It wasn’t all that long ago that I discovered a real treasure in Washington DC–the Kreeger Museum.  It is a magnificent, yet intimate museum housing a stunning art collection.  It offers concerts, lectures, community events and so much more. In December, we held the Disruptive Women in Health Care annual reception at the museum – a program that highlighted the power of art and music and its relationship to health and wellness.

I am writing to let everyone know about an upcoming Kreeger event—it is a program to benefit Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers and families.  We’ll hear about it at the event Tuesday, March 15 at the jewel of a museum, over champagne cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. See below for more details.

Hope to see you there. 

About Conversations at The Kreeger Museum

The Kreeger Museum is proud to announce the launch of an exciting new art and music program for individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and other dementia related illnesses and their caregivers. (more…)

Susannah Fox of Pew Internet talks about Healthcare Out Loud, the concept of people using the internet to gather and share information in a very public way. 

Watch video

Susannah presents trends over time as related to internet access in general, for example:

• Not that long ago in 1995, 10% of American adults had access to the internet, as compared to 75% today.
• In the year 2000, 5% of American homes had broadband. Today that number is about 66%. 

She also discusses how mobile and broadband are multipliers to what people do online, and asks the question: “What’s the ROI on love?”

By Hope Ditto. So if you’re like me and – single or taken, happy or miserable — you disdain Valentine’s Day annually with the sort of unbridled hatred most people reserve for only the IRS and Christina Aguilera’s rendition of the National Anthem, take heart! If you, like me, feel a rush of irritation when you spot one of those sappy grocery store displays (groaning under the weight of the overpriced heart-shaped chocolates it is so desperately trying to promote) or are subjected to yet another of the cutesy, romantic commercials that infiltrate our daily lives sometime after the winter holiday decorations — a contrast in all of their stark, primary-colored glory — are relegated to the clearance section, fear not! As someone who, beginning just after MLK Day, feels an innate sense of impending doom perfectly correlated with the slow transition of my world from the full ROYGBIV color spectrum towards such an abundance of pink and purple I could swear someone swapped my Ray-Bans for rose-colored glasses, there is a (small) glimmer of hope this year!

But if you’re like me and also believe that laughter is the best remedy for any ailment (including a case of what my friends have appropriately dubbed the “Valentine’s Day Blues”), I’ve got you covered [well, CBS Cares does but I’m the one writing about it so I’ll take some credit!]. Not only are their Valentine’s-themed PSAs informative, culturally relevant and just racy enough to keep your finger off the fast forward button on your DVR remote, they are downright hilarious – guaranteed to evoke a healthy laugh from even a “Valentine’s Day Grinch” like myself.

The PSAs are part of CBS Cares’ Valentine’s Day Campaign on Testicular Cancer. Along with airing the PSAs – which encourage men to “do something special for [their] woman on Valentine’s Day” by examining themselves for testicular cancer, because “this Valentine’s Day, why give a diamond when you can give the family jewels?” – the campaign (just one of the several currently being promoted by CBS Cares) offers additional information, resources and social media tools designed to both educate the public and get the word out about testicular cancer prevention. Plus, if you’re like me and detest Valentine’s Day, how can you not support any campaign encouraging your man to forgo the traditional V-Day gifts?! (I recognize that I may be alone on this one.)

CBS Cares is a lot bigger than just this “Family Jewels” bit, though. Created by CBS Television Network in 2000, the CBS Cares campaign is a commitment to use CBS talent to create PSAs promoting a variety of issues — from child abuse to menopause, identity theft to epilepsy and everything in between – in need of a platform. Though it began as just a collection of 15 second or so PSAs, CBS Cares has evolved into so much more. As their website explains, “With Network PSAs as its fulcrum, CBS Cares has grown into a multimedia project involving many areas and talents at CBS: Entertainment, News, Sports, Digital Media, Radio, CBS Outdoor, Communications and Marketing.” Some are themed around a holiday and put into circulation for a set period of time (like the Valentine’s Day testicular cancer one or like this Christmas-themed one encouraging women to get regular pap smears), while others are more general and thus relevant for several months or years (like this one on getting a regular colonoscopy or this one on supporting our troops). There are some “core” issues that the network continues to promote, but staff are always on the lookout for new, underserved causes that could be bettered through a CBS Cares campaign. As time has gone on, the network has not only increased the scope of these mini-campaigns but also their monetary commitment. In 2009 alone, the network scheduled more than $200 million worth of public service announcements. While all of the creative work (talent, copy, production, etc.) is done in-house, CBS Cares notes that “The starting point for every PSA–before scripting begins–is close consultation with experts on the frontline of each field to learn what messages they feel are the most important to convey.”

So, whether you are like me or you are a Valentine’s Day enthusiast who has been counting down the days, shopping for the perfect dress, tearing up at the commercials and walking around relishing in what you know for certain is love in the air (don’t worry, I’m not here to judge), the PSAs are worth a view (and definitely worth forwarding along  if you are like me and lucky enough to have someone special in your life, Valentine’s Day enthusiast or [most decidedly] not).

From all of the Disruptive Women in Health Care, Happy Valentine’s Day!