Dr. Elmer Huerta is the face of health information for many in the Latino community, where he is known for bringing health information to the masses and making it easy-to-understand. Huerta, director of the Cancer Preventorium at the Washington Cancer Institute at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, was honored at the White House on Tuesday, September 10, as a Champion of Change for a career spent working to engage, inform and prevent disease in communities that have been underserved in the past. In addition to founding the Cancer Preventorium, a clinic which was helps people get screened for cancer at early stages, he was also the first Latino elected as volunteer national president of the American Cancer Society. And he doesnÈt just work in his local community. Huerta is the go-to expert on Spanish-language radio and television across the country, where he talks about health and disease prevention, reaching a wide audience who might not get the information elsewhere. Huerta was nominated for the Champion of Change award by ACS CAN.
After months of delay and hard negotiations, Congress has finally passed a funding bill! The bill includes a small increase for cancer research and prevention programs.