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08 Mar 2023

Executive Director's Message, March 2023

  • VCCC Alliance

For women everywhere, we must do better

“Living with pain and not being believed deprives us of our full humanity, and we deserve better.”

Those were the words spoken by Gabrielle Jackson in her keynote (watch it here) at our International Women’s Day event last week focussing on gender bias in medicine, that we hosted with the Royal Women’s Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

The data are disturbing. Women wait longer for pain medication than men, are more likely to have physical symptoms attributed to mental health issues, are more likely to have heart disease misdiagnosed, become disabled after a stroke, and wait longer to be diagnosed for cancer.

As a medical professional, hearing this vivid, and at times harrowing, discussion was humbling. But as a male, I couldn’t help but be disappointed that there were only six males in total in a room of over 60 people, and the disparity was worse among our online audience of over 150. I believe this is emblematic of a much bigger problem of not taking this issue with appropriate seriousness and the irony was not lost on those of us in attendance. As my colleague Dr David Speakman said, “we’re not going to solve equity in health and medicine without everyone being a part of the solution – that’s women and men”.

We were also joined by The Hon Ged Kearney MP who, as Assistant Minister for Health and Chair of the National Advisory Council on Women's Health, said she is “aiming for practical, tangible and achievable changes to the system”. A systemic problem needs systemic change, and I’m reinvigorated this International Women’s Day to continue the discussion and bring more men into the conversation, for everyone’s sake.

Small steps in the right direction

As an organisation, we’ve come a long way in addressing the gender disparity in our leadership and committee representation. Our Board features numerous outstanding female leaders and our female program chairs who work across our Strategic Program Plan 2021-24 outnumber their male counterparts.  This is great progress and adds substantially to our ability to address the many insidious issues that arise when you do not ensure gender equity at senior levels. As far as we’ve come, we acknowledge we still have a lot more work do to achieve the same in other aspects of diversity particularly in our Research and Education Leads.

A new initiative to drive leadership capability

Gender and ethnic diversity in leadership has been shown to increase business performance substantially compared to organisations where inclusion is not a priority. We know as a sector we have a long way to go to boost diverse representation in leadership, but I’m thrilled to see initiatives underway to address this problem.

The VCCC Alliance Leadership Academy is a major new initiative to educate, build, connect and recognise current and emerging leaders in cancer – across all disciplines – to ensure the future of cancer healthcare in Victoria is in capable hands.

The Leadership Academy comprises a network of like-minded individuals working to improve patient care through effective leadership, and I invite all current and aspiring leaders to join us for what promises to be an inspiring Launch event later this month. We would especially love to see a strong contingent of women and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in attendance.

We will be joined by key leaders from across our alliance and beyond as we hear from The Honourable Jaala Pulford on the influences and experiences that have shaped her as a leader, and Dr Stephen Parnis on responding collaboratively to challenges during the worst days of the pandemic.

Join me in booking a table of your emerging and established leaders; it's a great opportunity for team building as you talk leadership with your teams. Right now you can book a table for six people at the discounted rate of $90 per head (excl. GST and booking fee).

Screening needs renewed focus

I feel we are at a concerning juncture in women’s cancer right now, particularly with screening for breast and cervical cancer. Breast cancer screening is simply too low, and the transition to molecular-based technology for cervical cancer screening is still to be fully realised. These factors combined with the system difficulties in general practice and the reduced cancer screening rates during the height of the pandemic leave me concerned about the state of play for women’s cancers in general.

As reported with the latest data from the Victorian Cancer Registry, from 2018-2021 only an estimated 62% of eligible Victorians participated in the National Cervical Screening Program.

Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers and treatment is incredibly effective if detected early, so the relatively low uptake in screening is of particular concern. Like many cancers, cervical cancer also presents an all-too-common issue of health equity, with Aboriginal Victorian females 4.8 times more likely to die from cervical cancer than non-Aboriginal females.

Like cervical cancer, the uptake of screening for breast cancer is too low. Breast cancer continues to dominate women’s cancer diagnoses and deaths, causing 25% of all cancer deaths in females aged between 25 to 59 years in 2021. It remains the most prevalent cancer in women aged 50 and over, the third leading cause of cancer-related death in Victoria and the second leading cause of death among females.

A legacy of strength and unity

Last but definitely not least, it’s with mixed emotions that we announce that Emeritus Professor Linda Kristjanson AO will step down from her role as Chair of the VCCC Alliance Board at the end of her second term in June 2023.

Linda has guided our alliance through its growth from a fledgling partnership through to our current strong position with strength, vision, energy and compassion, always with an eye to the patients we are here to serve.

We owe her a huge debt of gratitude for her service and for the values she has instilled in the fabric of this alliance. Uniting major institutional stakeholders in a complex environment, while creating a sense of shared purpose and clear future direction has required an enormous commitment, dedication and a special talent for strategy and diplomacy. Thank you, Linda.

I’d also like to publicly thank Professor Doug Hilton AO for his impressive and impactful service over 14 years as WEHI Director. Doug leaves behind a monumental legacy and his dedication has paved the way for WEHI’s continued success for many years to come. As a former board director, Doug remains a Fellow of the VCCC Alliance and we look forward to a continued association with him as he embarks on the next chapter of his career.

Professor Grant McArthur
Executive Director

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