Jessica Baladad: First and only AI-powered self exam app created by a breast cancer survivor
Jessica Baladad, Founder and Chief Advocate of Feel For Your Life, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Squeeze Your Boobs. Feel For Your Life.
The first word in each sentences is a verb. And that’s on purpose.
You is the implied subject.
It’s all in the name telling you to perform an action, for yourself. For Your Life.
Feel For Your Life has had a fantastic year.
What started out as a social media movement during the pandemic has become the first and only AI-powered self exam app created by a breast cancer survivor.
A simple thank you hardly feels sufficient to acknowledge the 70,000 downloads achieved through the end of this year.
But I’m grateful for those who trust me to be part of their advocacy.
I can’t predict everything that may happen in healthcare over the next few years, but I do focus on what I can control and how I can serve others.
Recently, the classification of Stage 0 breast cancer has come under scrutiny.
A JAMA Network study tracked 957 women with low-risk Stage 0 breast cancer. It compared outcomes between those who underwent active monitoring and those who received surgery or radiation.
After 2 years, the rate of invasive breast cancer was the same in both groups.
I have always advocated for women to have agency in their medical decisions. But this autonomy must exist within a healthcare system that doesn’t penalize patients for their choices or redefine care to the detriment of those at risk.
If Stage 0 is no longer cancer, I’m concerned that it will set a dangerous precedent where treatment could be denied.
If Stage 0 becomes merely something we monitor, how long before Stage 1A, or even 1B, is evaluated the same?
I personally walked around with Stage 2B for I couldn’t tell you how long but my symptoms were a lump and the need to sleep more than usual. I was still in the gym 5 days a week.
I was traveling, I was working and I was enjoying being a newlywed.
Should my medical teams only have intervened once it became Stage 3?
I have faith in our medical community. It’s the insurance companies that will attempt to weaponize these reclassifications to their advantage.
They’ll use studies like this to justify denying coverage for treatments, surgeries or even preventative measures.
They’ll claim that certain conditions no longer warrant intervention.
This could mean waiting until a manageable diagnosis becomes something far more invasive or worse, untreatable.
Advocacy and vigilance will matter more.
Knowing your body, your family history, your risk, is more essential.
So, feel for your life.”
Learn more about that here.
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