 It's good to be here. Welcome everybody. I want to just Talk about this really important bill Senate bill 609 as you know, this is personal Thanks to a routine checkup My doctors and I detected the presence of prostate cancer early because of that early detection I was able to treat the disease actually on Tuesday with outpatient care We all need to be aware of the options we have in dealing with the disease and this good bill will help us In that regard it encourages this bill 609 encourages our agencies and the medical profession To create greater public awareness of prostate cancer The bill directs the Department of Health To establish a 19-member task force to investigate and make recommendations on prostate cancer It will help medical professionals insurers governmental agencies and patients to have accurate information about screening about Diagnosis about treatment options and it will help doctors continue to improve the standard of care for sufferers of prostate cancer The point is that doing nothing cannot and will not be an option Too many people if we don't do anything will continue to die from this disease So we need to act sensibly and we need to act decisively Prostate cancer has a similar incidence rate and a similar mortality rate as breast cancer in 2015 over 10,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer just in Pennsylvania Almost 1300 died in Pennsylvania that year Prostate cancer is the most common form in fact of cancer affecting men It's therefore important that we Beat this disease and we can beat it This bill will help us figure out how to work together to do just this and I'm really very proud to sign it So now I'm pleased to hand this over to the author of this bill senator Mitch senator Mitch Thank You governor, and it's a pleasure to be here this afternoon. I In addition to a couple comments I do have two groups that I'd like to recognize And bear with me while I get the cheaters out Or we're joined here today by some of the members of the prostate cancer Coalition and I want to recognize the board members if I may Jeff Smith who is the controller of the Carlisle Regional Medical Center He's involved because he believes in the mission and likes the out the unique opportunities that the coalition addresses Megan McNally who is standing here with us An active member of the coalition and works for the OS is it ambulatory surgical OSS, okay. Thank you. Dr. Jay Raymond. He's a urologist at the Hershey Medical Center treats almost exclusively Prostate cancer and he's been a great resource to us on the mission and the journey of this legislation Dr. R. Scott Owens. He's a local urologist in Camp Hill And he too treats many prostate cancer patients and is politically active in the urology patients Access to care initiative Jay Snyder. He's one of the original piece PPCC board members or Pennsylvania prostate cancer coalition a frequent volunteer at events And he's also a survivor and I understand you're a pro tennis judge as well All right. Okay We also have Well, I believe that's all the members. Excuse me that are here today The governor touched upon many of the points that I was would like to touch on but let me just re-emphasize that the the rate of incidence for men With prostate cancer is practically equal to women with breast cancer and yet I go every October to the breast cancer coalitions annual luncheon I was fortunate enough a couple of years ago to sponsor legislation about dense breasts, which is a prime indicator now of of the heretofore undiagnosed Breast cancer, but you know the women get a lot of a lot of coverage on this and men We don't get nearly as much and that's probably our fault because of the governor has said we've been kind of quiet about it We've we've kept it more in the closet if you will so there is a an effort by the Pennsylvania prostate cancer coalition saying don't fear the finger and so I thought today I would bring along the prop and and Help to promote the idea that men we need to have a lot more advice about this in fact I rearranged my calendar and be here today to join the governor and Honestly, one of the appointments that I had to move was my own prostate exam I go every six months. I'm at that age where it's practical for me to do that now in closing let me say I worked with the members of the Advisory committee as well and one in particular a doctor Bacala from the Lehigh Valley Hospital and I was over with him that too long ago and we did what I call the Mench report my half-hour report that we provide on public television to our Constituent area and we talked about the PSA test and that it's not the most Dependable test and that today there is much greater technology very similar to what we found in breast cancer that we're now able to diagnose much more the the Incidents of breast cancer through just understanding the density of the breast tissue and we can do that same very Very similar in using new imaging technology to be able to diagnose men's prostate issues the NHS and the Centers for Disease Control have both issued some guidelines that that are asking or requiring medical people today right now to do fewer Tests at the early stages of prostate and what we are beginning to see already is that we are missing the diagnosis of men with Early-stage prostate cancer, but we're catching it in the later stages and I am hopeful that as we move forward with the Advisory committee and the departments that will be able to refine some of that and also help to drive some of the more the The better technology the newer imaging technology into the marketplace so that men are able to be diagnosed Early and effectively and so that we can as we have done with breast cancer begin to curb the the death incidents with the prostate cancer So it's my pleasure to be here and pleasure to have been a sponsor of the the measure and thank you very much So this is already the law which is why the Task force has met twice already So come on over and I'm going to sign Ceremonially and give you the then I'll come over and answer questions. All right. Very good. Senator has some questions. Yeah, it's act 66 of 2015 if anyone's looking thank you Yeah, I appreciate what you're saying I truly do all right