UH Geauga Gastroenterologist Tireless in Spreading the Word About Colorectal Cancer Screening

UH Clinical Update | July 2023

Fewer than six in 10 American adults between the ages of 45 to 75 have received the recommended screening for colorectal cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy People 2030 initiative. UH Geauga gastroenterologist Mohammed Mazumder, MD, sees that number as a wake-up call – and a call to action.

Mohammed Mazumber, MD

“The incidence of colorectal cancer is still very high,” he highlights. “Between 100,000 and 150,000 people are affected every year, and 50,000 people die, although we have a screen. We simply have to emphasize providing more information.”

Passion in action: This past March – Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month – Dr. Mazumder made good on this promise, planning and coordinating a full month of awareness-building activities for the staff and patients at UH Geauga. He and the entire care team designed an educational flyer for the public, solicited staff input to design a colorectal cancer awareness T-shirt for them to wear, set up shop in the hospital lobby to answer questions patients may have and even attended the Middlefield Home and Garden Show, where they spoke with community members about colorectal screening guidelines and the indications for colonoscopy. A public-facing webinar and coordinated physician-facing Continuing Medical Education session rounded out the month’s activities.

“To create an interdisciplinary team, Dr. Mazumder recruited general surgeon Liming Yu, MD, medical oncologist Osei-Tutu Owusu, MD, and medical geneticist Jirat Chenbhanich, MD, to provide an overview of current updates and recommendations on colorectal cancer screening, medical and surgical management, and hereditary gastrointestinal cancer syndromes,” says Marlea Miano, MD, Chief Medical Officer at UH Geauga Medical Center. “All of these activities have certainly improved service line awareness. His engagement surrounding Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month has been astounding.”

All the more so given that Dr. Mazumder has only been on staff at UH Geauga for a few months.

“Dr. Mazumder joined UH Geauga in December 2022, coming over from St. Vincent Charity hospital,” Dr. Miano adds. “In that short time, he has accomplished quite a bit. He demonstrated agility and recognized the need for innovation. He was able to successfully and in a timely manner, implement initiatives. Partnering with medical staff he has improved the quality and value of the care provided. Partnering with community outreach, he has smoothed and encouraged access to services related to prevention.”

Dr. Mazumder was recently recognized for this stellar work with a “Dinner with the Doc” honor from Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS, UH Chief Executive Officer and Jane and Henry Meyer Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair.

Not content with the status quo, Dr. Mazumder says he plans even more colorectal cancer prevention outreach efforts for next year.

“We'll continue doing our job, especially during the month of March, and we’ll work to attract more people,” he says. “This year, for example, the t-shirt was mainly for our staff. Maybe we can extend our activity with the new, more attractive logo and distribute that t-shirt with more people, especially to our community members.”

For Dr. Mazumder, his passion for colorectal cancer screening is inextricably linked to his fascination with the gastrointestinal system and its pivotal role in maintaining human health.

“Nutrients are the fuel of the human body, and no one can function without nutrients,” he says. “It needs a healthy digestive system for the absorption of nutrients in order to keep other vital systems healthy”.

It’s why he chose the specialty he did after completing medical school in Bangladesh and moving to the United States in 2001.

As he further establishes his practice at UH Geauga, Dr. Mazumder says he’s already impressed by the welcoming nature of the Geauga County community.

“There is a trust between a provider and the patient here in Geauga that is truly remarkable,” he says.

Dr. Mazumder says he does his part to keep this relationship strong by always taking the few extra minutes it takes to truly listen to what each patient is saying.

“That's very important,” he says. “They want to talk, and then we can have more information that helps me a lot to make the diagnosis to avoid unnecessary testing and polypharmacy. For example, sometimes I find that people are taking the same over-the-counter medication, but two different brands, when they only need one. We need to avoid that. In the end, spending extra time listening definitely helps to enhance the doctor-patient relationship, which is very important in terms of outcome.”

To nominate a physician for this honor, please visit the UH Digital Workplace. The next deadline is September 15.