When I reflect on the articles included in this edition of Alliance, it really drives home to me the importance of collaboration and partnerships. Not only that, but I feel immensely proud of the trailblazing approach the VCCC Alliance has led in this realm – by first bringing our members from different health, academic and research institutes together over a decade ago, and then forging new partnerships beyond, but inclusive of, members to create real change.
One of these is our collaboration with the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), with whom we signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2023. Our latest collaboration involves supporting a VACCHO-led initiative to pilot a culturally tailored lung cancer screening project as part of the National Lung Cancer Screening Program. It is Aboriginal-led, culturally safe and tailored to local needs and involves design, implementation and evaluation. Dr Shayne Bellingham, VCCC Alliance Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program Manager, leads our involvement in this important initiative. At its heart is a goal to reduce mortality from lung cancer, the most diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Established in 2022, the Victorian Teletrial Hub brought together three organisations working to make cancer clinical trials more accessible for priority populations. We joined forces with Regional Trials Network-Victoria (RTN-Vic) and AlfredHealth TrialHub, and Safer Care Victoria recently joined the partnership. Several articles on this unique approach have recently been published. It’s fantastic to see the benefits of this collective impact approach come to fruition.
A strength of the Alliance is our ability to support the educational needs of our members and the broader cancer sector through our dedicated online learning platform, the Centre for Cancer Education, which includes in-house education experts. Our partnership with Melanoma Institute Australia to support education of melanoma nurses exemplifies our diversified approach to organisational sustainability, which continues to experience significant growth.
This week, the collaborative Cancer Consumer-led Research Partnership reached a milestone with the first in-person workshop delivered for consumers involved in the lived experience leadership masterclass – Lead from Lived Experience: Enhancing Cancer Care. This partnership which received $1.6m in Victorian Government funding in 2023, is supported by five cancer control organisations – VCCC Alliance, Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium, Cancer Council Victoria, RTN-Vic and the University of Melbourne. It builds on the VCCC Alliance’s approach to consumer involvement, and takes it to the next level – consumer leadership.
This year’s Jo Leonard Memorial Scholarship has been awarded to Dr Christine De Nardo, Chief Operating Officer of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. Congratulations to Dr De Nardo, a deserving recipient of this scholarship, who displays the core values of the VCCC Alliance in her work at ONJCRI, including with her passion for pursuing gender equity and diversity in the workplace and beyond.
Prof Grant McArthur AO
Chief Executive Officer
