The VICS conference held at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in May was a vibrant forum to connect and network with colleagues in the cancer field.
As a sponsor of the event we were able to introduce many new people - especially from regional Victoria - to the work of the alliance and to the opportunities available to the broader cancer workforce and networks across the state, enabled by our 10 member alliance.
The conference delivered an informative update on the progress of the Tumour Summits, established five years ago for seven different tumour streams. The summits are clinician led forums designed to facilitate a statewide discussion about quality of care and variations in care and outcomes, dovetailing with the important optimal care pathways (OCP) introduced by the Victorian Government. They bring together representatives from all the Victorian integrated cancer services and involve consumer participants. Data sets are analysed by Cancer Council Victoria and these include Victorian administrative health data sets and various quality registry clinical data.
Among presentations share on the day there were findings from further colorectal and lung summits...notably the latter led to the 2016 Victorian Lung Cancer Service Redesign project.
Data for colorectal cancer was presented, showing significant improvement in overall survival if the optimal care pathway is followed.
Dr Belinda Lee, consultant medical oncologist at the Northern and Royal Melbourne Hospitals, Peter Mac and Walter and Eliza Hall Institute reported on the deeper understanding of the data that can be provided by detailed clinical registries, using the PURPLE pancreatic cancer registry as an example. The registry was established in 2016 and now encompasses 27 pancreatic cancer treatment centres. She showed how these data can indicate reasons for variance in patient care pathways.
A key aspect of adherence to the optimal care pathways is patient review at multidisciplinary meetings. Not only that patient cases are discussed but that it occurs at the appropriate time for treatment planning. Presentation of a study undertaken at the Austin illustrated how improvements to multidisciplinary case presentations might be implemented among clinicians and it was highlighted that the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services will be prioritising improvements in this area.
