The day we have all been waiting for has finally arrived! A patient-centered research project at the Mayo Clinic that was funded by Parotid Patient Project is being released. As patients, we often wonder why we don’t have more answers about parotid tumors, why our medical teams often don’t understand what we go through during this process, why more advanced treatment options are not available, and why more attention has not been focused on this disease process?

In this episode, Dr. Linda Yin, Head and Neck Surgeon, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan, joins me to explain the details about this research project, to explain the answers she hopes to find through this study, and shares her thoughts on how our voices can be used to help improve the management, care, and treatment of parotid tumors.

We all have a unique opportunity to let our voices be heard and to help influence the care of future parotid patients by participating in this research study. It is time for the parotid community to come together and build a coalition of patients, doctors, and researchers to work together toward the goal of improving parotid patient care.

Listen in to the episode and learn how you can join us in the fight for more answers and better treatment options for parotid patients!

Join the Research Project:

You can sign up for this research study by clicking this link:

https://surveys.mayoclinic.org/jfe/form/SV_0CBqkIUwp90mJW6

Key Quotes from the Episode:

“While we’re very passionate about parotid tumors and obviously those that are listening to this podcast and any patient who has been afflicted by a parotid tumor can attest that this takes up a significant portion of their energy and really changes their life to have this diagnosis. On a population level, it is still quite a rare disease process and that creates a few challenges.”

“When we think about medicine today, we really feel that outcomes should not just be judged by if we, as the surgeon, feel that we did a good job but by how the patient feels.”

“On the most and simplest level, what the study aims to do is just open up better communication and explore the patient experience in a more detailed and comprehensive way.”

“The voice of the patient is the only thing that really matters in this study.”

“Every patient voice matters and there is a big diversity of experiences that people go through, and we want to try to capture and understand all of it in this comprehensive survey.”

“By letting your voice be heard that is the most important way to help.”

“It is our hope that this outcome measure that we develop through this survey can be implicated and can be used on a wider basis by surgeons around the country and even around the world to be administered to patients.”

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