Home Care In Hudson, IA

PAUL HUDSON, boss of Sanofi, is brandishing an iPhone. He is keen to show off the French drugmaker’s new artificial-intelligence (AI) app, plai. It draws on more than 1bn data points to provide “snackable” information, from warnings about low stocks of a drug to questions for a meeting with an ad agency or suggestions to set up clinical-trial sites that could expedite drug approvals. Like Netflix recommendations, plai delivers “nudges”, as Mr Hudson calls them, that are useful at that moment in time. He jokes that plai broke even in about four hours, and says the cost is “peanuts” compared with the $300m-400m that big consultancies charge for a project to curate a big company’s data. One in ten of Sanofi’s 80,000 staff uses it every day.

AI is not new in drugmaking. Biotech firms have been tinkering with it for years. Now interest from big pharma is growing. Last year Emma Walmsley, chief executive of GSK, said it could improve the productivity of research and development, the industry’s most profound challenge. Moderna recently described itself as “laser-focused” on AI. Sanofi is “all in”. Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, reckons that within a decade the pharmaceutical industry may be spending $50bn a year on AI to speed up drug development.

Most of the buzz revolves around AIs trained on biological data that could improve the hit-and-miss process of drug discovery. Drugs can take a decade to emerge, cost billions of dollars and succeed only 10% of the time. Even a small improvement in speed and efficiency would be hugely valuable. But scientists have struggled to tame biological big data with conventional statistical tools. Machine learning makes it possible to sift through piles of information, from clinical patient data and genome sequences to images of body scans. Last year DeepMind, an AI lab that is part of Google, made a breakthrough using its AlphaFold system to predict the structure of almost all proteins, which may one day help identify which molecules have therapeutic potential.

Though only around a dozen drugs in development have so far involved the use of AI, the list may grow rapidly—especially for simple molecules with properties that are relatively easy to predict. In the case of these more straightforward chemistries, the future of medicine is looking ever more like a computational problem.

Jim Weatherall, who oversees data science and AI at AstraZeneca, says the technology is used in 70% of the British firm’s small molecules in development. Using a technique called “reinforcement learning”, AstraZeneca’s AI is constantly tweaking its molecular suggestions and playing out how a tweaked molecule might react. Ali Mortazavi, boss of E-therapeutics, a biotech startup in London, says that knowing the sequences of all the genes in, say, the liver, lets his firm use software to design RNA molecules (which are more complex but, owing to their links to DNA, predictably so). AI algorithms then predict the activity of the molecules, which can stop the function of any disease-causing gene.

Euan Ashley of Stanford University points to another AI application. “Knowledge graphs” are a kind of database that stores data about genes, proteins, diseases and drugs, as well as the biological pathways that connect them. They, too, can help identify new targets for drug development. “Generative” AI, meanwhile, is being trialled for suggesting entirely new chemical and biological structures for testing, just as ChatGPT can ingest text on the internet and spit out a new poem or essay. Beyond drug discovery, AIs like plai could help with the perennial problem of efficiency in a heavily regulated and labour-intensive sector.

Some pharma bosses worry that generative AIs’ tendency to make stuff up could send researchers down blind alleys. More apocalyptically, Mr Hudson says half of the pharma CEOs he talks to about AI fear, like many people, the existential threats it poses. For his part, he foresees the next industrial revolution, not a robot uprising.

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) -The University of Iowa has wrapped up an investigation at Hudson Schools after 12 teachers were diagnosed with breast cancer within a decade.

For the last few months, the Iowa Cancer Registry has been working to determine if there’s a breast cancer cluster associated with the school. They did not find any evidence of a breast cancer cluster among school staff in Hudson. But the University says the investigation did have some shortfalls, and proved more difficult than most.

The Iowa Cancer Registry keeps track of each and every cancer case in the state to help with research, including potentially pinpointing causes.

“We have complete cases back to 1974 through present time,” explained Mary Charlton, Director of the Iowa Cancer Registry.

They did what’s called a cancer cluster investigation at Hudson Schools which typically involves a geographical area, but this situation was different.

“This was more of a work site one so people don’t all live in Hudson. You know 2/3 of the people in the Hudson staff in the file they gave us didn’t live in Hudson,” said Charlton.

The hope was to find a similar school district to compare to, but when that didn’t work out the University compared Hudson staff to the areas of Hudson, Dike and Cedar Falls.

“They did not have a higher mix or a higher proportion of breast cancer among their cancer cases than those other comparison populations,” Charlton explained.

But she says a cluster couldn’t be completely be ruled out as they were lacking information along the way.

“It was basically what’s available in their directory. So we did not have things like date of birth which would have made our linkage to our database much more precise and we’d be much more confident that we are linking the right people,” said Charlton.

Hudson Superintendent Dr. Tony Voss sent a statement saying, “We are grateful for the work of the University of Iowa Cancer Registry, and we understand there were some limitations to the study due to the district not being able to release some of the requested personal employee data. We knew this going in, and we also knew that getting a completely definitive answer would be challenging. This is why the district took the preemptive step of contracting with a third-party environmental testing firm.

As for the data that could not be released, the district worked diligently with legal counsel on this issue. We requested that our legal counsel consult with other firms to find a way to release the data. Ultimately, legal counsel recommended we not release this data due to possible legal exposure for the district.

It’s also important for our community to understand exactly what data was being requested for release. This data included social security numbers, middle initials, home addresses, and dates of birth for more than 1,300 current and former employees, without their consent. We worked with the Registry over the course of several months to find a way to get them as much data as we could, at one point meeting their request to release zip code information.

The follow-up question, however, was impossible to answer: Can you confirm whether or not this is a current zip code or the zip code of the employee at the time of their employment? The district had no way to confirm this information, as the database query went back decades.

The district provided as much information as possible to the Iowa Cancer Registry. Even with the limitations, we believe the report provided gives us valuable data and insights into the concerns expressed by some members of our school district community.”

Diane Anderson is a former Hudson teacher who had breast cancer. She wishes more could have been done to help the investigation.

“I was a little bit disappointed that the district couldn’t provide all of the needed information to maybe make the results a little bit more accurate,” Anderson said.

Still, she’s grateful there was an investigation and hopes it makes people aware of their health and the possible connections to their surroundings.

“I hope that it’s raised awareness for people because that was really our intent. We didn’t want a cluster to be found. We wanted it to be researched and ruled out,” said Anderson.

“We collect a lot of information about the cancer types that people have including the tissue features of the cancer and if there was one common source that was causing this among the teachers we would have expected them to have all similar features of their cancer,” Charlton said.

That was not the case at Hudson Schools , adding to the confidence that there isn’t a cluster there.

While doing this investigation the University did have one unexpected finding. There’s a higher amount of prostate cancer among men in Hudson than in Cedar Falls. However, that finding was not enough to warrant any additional investigation by the CDC and is not considered a cluster.

You can read the full investigation report here.

Copyright 2022 KCRG. All rights reserved.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) -The University of Iowa is going to investigate after 12 teachers were diagnosed with breast cancer in less than a decade at Hudson Schools. The University will be able to help determine whether an environmental factor at the school contributed to the cancer cases.

“I know there’s a lot of people concerned about this and we’re just really happy to follow through,” said Mary Charlton, Associate Professor at the University of Iowa Department of Epidemiology and Director & Principal Investigator of the Iowa Cancer Registry.

The Iowa Cancer Registry looks into a handful of cancer cluster cases in the state each year.

“Since the mid 90′s we’ve done about 145 cancer cluster investigations,” said Charlton.

When teachers in the Hudson School District came forward with concerns about the number of breast cancer cases among staff the University of Iowa was approached to try and find an environmental cause. But doing so, is extremely difficult.

Investigations typically look at a given geographic area, something that’s helpful as the Iowa Cancer Registry keeps track of cases across the state and where those diagnosed resided at the time of their diagnosis.

This time they’ll be looking at a specific school instead.

“What we don’t capture in our registry is who worked where when. So in that case we’ll have to be provided with a list of all the people who worked there back you know several years so we can really understand,” Charlton explained.

It’s going to take district participation, that’s something Superintendent Dr. Voss is on board with knowing a cause still may not be found.

“It’s going to be difficult to find answers, I don’t know if there is going to be a correlation or a causation,” Dr. Voss said.

The University says even when an environmental cause isn’t found, they’re investigations can still be of value to a community.

“Even when we don’t find things you know one environmental source a lot times we can learn things about risk factors,” Charlton explained.

She says some common risk factors for cancer include tobacco or smoking exposure, lack of physical activity, obesity, dietary factors and alcohol exposure. Environmental factors are less commonly proved.

“Sometimes it’s things in the water, sometimes it’s things in the air, sometimes soil, that type of thing,” said Charlton.

Cancer cluster investigations typically take a couple of months to complete, but the more complex cases can take longer.

Only one cancer cluster investigation the University of Iowa has done has lead to further investigation by the CDC. That case was in Wellman in the 90′s where there was a brain cancer cluster. An environmental cause there was never pinpointed.

Copyright 2022 KCRG. All rights reserved.

HUDSON, Iowa (KWWL)- In the last eight or nine years, 12 Hudson Community School District teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer. It is leaving some of them wondering if there is a connection and searching for answers.

Carol Menefee's diagnosis came a week before her 46th birthday in 2009.

"They had just started doing 3D mammograms, and they showed me the first one and wanted to show me what it looked like. Then the second one, they were like, ''yep, well call your doctor,'" Menefee, who teaches first grade at Hudson Elementary School, said. "I walked out of there knowing I was going to get bad news."

Menefee has taught in Hudson for more than three decades. She had stage three breast cancer, the first of two cancer battles in her time at Hudson schools. She also fought non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2016.

"I did a double mastectomy, and I went through chemo and 33 rounds of radiation," Menefee said.

Diane Anderson got the message a few years ago while she was in Colorado. She had a tumor under her arm.

"They said the type of cancer I have is supposed to be very aggressive and fast-growing invasive," Anderson said. "So I had to start treatment right away."

Anderson is retired now after spending more than 30 years teaching in the Hudson Community School District. She had triple negative metastatic breast cancer, a rare type.

"I was shocked because I don't have breast cancer in my family," she said.

Anderson underwent five months of chemotherapy and 25 rounds of radiation.

"It changes you forever," she said.

Anderson and Menefee are in remission, some of their colleagues are still fighting breast cancer, and one, unfortunately, passed away.

A recent diagnosis of a young teacher raised alarm bells. Anderson and Menefee started to wonder if there was a connection, if something in the building or environment was responsible, and if there was anything they can do about it.

"It just made us kind of start talking more and more about how many seem to be diagnosed," Anderson said.

Anderson reached out to the Black Hawk County Health Department, who referred her to the Iowa Department of Public Health, who pointed her to the Iowa Cancer Registry at the University of Iowa, which investigates cancer clusters.

"We want to be proactive and advocate for everyone here if there was a possibility that there was anything," Anderson said.

After talking with researchers, Anderson, Menefee and two other teachers approached Hudson Schools Superintendent Dr. Tony Voss about participating in a cancer cluster investigation.

"Whenever someone is diagnosed with cancer, we wrap our arms around them and say, what can I do?" Dr. Voss said. "They took me in my word. What can I do? They said this is what you can do."

Dr. Voss agreed to participate and is meeting with the University of Iowa researchers on Monday to get things started.

"I was just struck by how they had done their work beforehand," Dr. Voss said. "They made the decision an easy decision."

Dr. Mary Charlton is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa School of Public Health and the Director and Principal Investigator at the Iowa Cancer Registry.

"A cancer cluster is essentially defined as a greater than expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a geographic area, or it could be at a workplace," Dr. Charlton said. "It usually involves people that have the same type of cancer, or maybe a rare type of cancer that you wouldn't expect, or cancer not normally seen in certain groups of people."

Dr. Charlton said it is often tough to prove there is a cancer cluster.

"Usually, the small numbers we're working with make it hard statistically and mathematically to prove that there is this excess cluster," Dr. Charlton said. "A lot of times when people suspect a breast cancer cluster, then we're looking to see in that target population where it's suspected, is the proportion of breast cancer greater than what would be expected in a comparable population."

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer, second only to skin cancer. Women have a 13% or 1 in 8 chance of developing it.

"When I look back at the last 15 to 20 years in the school district and realize that we employ many women in our school district, we don't know if there is a problem or not," Dr. Voss said. "When you say 12 to 14% of women, is that within the statistical margin? That's what we don't know until we talk to the university."

Dr. Charlton said one in two men and one in three women will get cancer in their lifetime.

According to data from the CDC, cancer is the number two cause of death in the Cedar Valley, second only to heart disease. At 214 deaths per 100,000 residents, it is well above the national average of 187.

"It may seem like there's a cluster, but it's because they share some other similar risk factors," Dr. Charlton said. "It ends up being pretty common and often not a cluster that was caused by some environmental or point source."

They know there is a chance they will not get any answers, but they believe it is worth trying to find out.

"What can I do? Well, this is what you can do. We'll take a look," Dr. Voss said. "We value our employees, and I need them to know that I do care about them and that our community does care about them."

MT. PLEASANT — Blue skies, sunshine, and generous donations from Wayland State Bank brought joy to the Mt. Pleasant community Thursday afternoon.

Every year Wayland State Bank (WSB) makes donations throughout the Mt. Pleasant Community. This year, those donations went to Iowa Wesleyan University, Tolson Community Action, Mt. Pleasant Christian School, The Fellowship Cup, and Cradle of Hope.

“We gather our deposits from the community, so it is only natural that there is a strong correlation to giving back, whether it is with resources or donating time,” WSB President Chad Hudson said. “It is a partnership. If the customers and community are doing well, we should be doing well. We strive for that.”

As Hudson made the rounds delivering donations, a theme of gratitude not only for these donations, but also for the continued support of the Mt. Pleasant community emerged.

“I’ve been at four different banks, this community pulls together, and not every community does,” Hudson said. “It has always felt like we’re pulling together. This is the best community I have lived in.”

Hudson and his family have lived in Mt. Pleasant for the last twelve years.

“I have been to a lot of places state side and overseas, and I’ll never stop saying that Henry County is unique.” Fellowship Cup Director Ken Brown said.

“We’re blessed to be in a community that is giving so greatly the last two, almost three years, now,” Brown said. “When COVID hit, the community responded and we’ve had our best years in the last two and a half years as far as giving and the support of the store.”

“We served a lot of folks between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Brown said. “The need was high and we wanted to make sure we had more than enough.”

“It is just things like this that help us continue to do what we do and help us grow,” Brown said of the $2,500 donation from WSB.

According to Hudson, Wayland State Bank has donated $2,500 to the Fellowship Cup and Community Action every year he has been with the bank. This is his 12th year making these donations on WSB’s behalf.

Head Start Family Specialist Keli Morgan spoke highly of the Mt. Pleasant community as she received the donation for Community Action.

“This goes toward our general fund,” Morgan said. “When we have donations like this it helps with the other things that we can’t normally make happen. [Community Donations] really are what keeps our programs running.”

“It doesn’t always have to be anything big,” Morgan said. “Just the little things matter, too.”

“We are very very thankful that we have you guys to help coordinate everything,” Hudson said. “You’re an important piece of the puzzle.”

“It takes a whole village to make the village run,” Morgan responded.

“We look where we can help families and these ladies help families in so many ways, that we’re able to help then through the food pantry or energy assistance in all those various ways,” Hudson said. “We feel like we are able to help quite a few people through here.”

“What a great donation,” Community Action Receptionist Joan Wegener said with a wide grin. “It will help a lot of these people in our community!”

That grateful spirit continued as Hudson delivered $500 to Mt. Pleasant Christian School Principal Tina Hill.

“We will probably apply [this donation] to our security doors,” Hill said. “We are about half way there, because it is quite expensive.”

“So, we just pray for favor,” she said because the school’s intention is to install security doors for the new school year in 2023.

Wayland State Bank has donated annually to Mt. Pleasant Christian and Iowa Wesleyan University for a number of years, as well.

“Wayland State Bank is proud to support the continuing growth of Iowa Wesleyan University and its positive impact on our community,” Hudson said as he presented WSB’s donation to Iowa Wesleyan University’s Development Director Jim Pedrick.

According to Pedrick, “Iowa Wesleyan University, a transformational learning community whose passion is to educate, empower and inspire students to lead meaningful lives and careers serves the communities of southeast Iowa through undergraduate and graduate programs with in-person and online classes.”

Before closing out 2022, Hudson made one last stop to deliver a donation to the Cradle of Hope Pregnancy Resource Center.

Director Peggy Knudson beamed as she accepted the gift.

“God has been so faithful,” she said and further spoke on the community’s support of Cradle of Hope.

“Someone last year asked us why we didn’t have an ongoing registry on Amazon or Walmart,” Knudson said. “So we made a registry and within a matter of a month, it was empty.”

Knudson has plans for this specific donation from WSB.

“It’ll definitely go to anything we have need of in the baby room,” she said.

The baby room is like a small store inside Cradle of Hope.

Moms that come to the program earn “mommy money” for attending classes and participating in other aspects of the program.

They then spend that money on items like baby clothes, diapers, wipes, formula, cribs, car seats, and many other needs.

“The first thing we buy [for the store] is car seats because they can’t leave the hospital without a car seat,” Knudson further explained.

“We always get a good stock pile of baby beds,” she said. “We had so many babies born this year; we totally went through our beds.”

“We always spend this money on diapers and wipes because every time a client comes in she usually leaves with a package of diapers and wipes,” Knudson said.

“It’s a blessing that’s for sure,” she said.

“It’s all about giving back,” Hudson concluded. “We all need to be good stewards of what God has given us.”

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Wayland State Bank President Chad Hudson presents the bank’s donation to Peggy Knudsen for Cradle of Hope. (AnnaMarie Ward/The Union)

Mt. Pleasant Christian School Principal Tina Hill accepts Wayland State Bank’s donation from President Chad Hudson. (AnnaMarie Ward/The Union)

Continuing Wayland State Bank’s tradition of giving back to the community, President Chad Hudson (right) presents a donation to Fellowship Cup Director Ken Brown (left). (AnnaMarie Ward/The Union)

Henry County Community Action’s Head Start Family Specialist Keli Morgan (middle) and Office Receptionist Joan Wegener (left) happily accept Wayland State Bank’s donation. (AnnaMarie Ward/The Union)