Catalysis

Professor Paul Timpson speaks with Divya on pancreas cancer research, his relationship with mentors and mentees and how to deal with career rejection

In this episode, Professor Alex Broom shares his research insights into the social, political and economic aspects of cancer care, primarily investigating the inequities within our health system and the flow on effect this has for the individual and society. Professor Broom is a Professor of Sociology at the School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Sydney. He is recognised as an international leader in sociology, with a specific interest in health. This has included a focus on the social, cultural and political dimensions of cancer and palliative care, and more recently, infectious diseases. His work takes a person-centred approach, qualitatively exploring the complex intersections of individual experience and social, cultural and political context.

Dr Alison Young is the current T2T3 Research Fellow at Sydney Catalyst and is working on implementing a smoking cessation pathway in several hospital sites across Sydney and regional NSW.

Monitoring of patients’ physical symptoms and psychological problems during and after cancer treatment is essential in modern oncology practice. Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) measures (including Quality of Life questionnaires)provide the tools to include patient voices in drug development, evaluation of new treatments and increasingly to support individual patient care through online symptom monitoring. The potential for using PROs as a quality of care measure has also been recognised but not yet widely tested. Examples of PROs as a quality of care measure in practice, such as the NIHR eRAPID program and eRAPID (Electronic patient self-Reporting of Adverse-events: Patient Information and aDvice, provide an opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned for the implementation of PROs. Furthermore, the NHS England Quality of Life Metric project is a response to the Independent Cancer Taskforce’s recommendations to introduce and implement Quality of Life (QoL) data collection for cancer survivors in England. The information can be used to make changes in care that focus on improving outcomes for patients. An approach to collecting QoL data was developed through an initial research report (Phase 1) and engagement with stakeholders (Phase 2; 2016-17). A pilot project (Phase 3; 2018-19) then tested a devolved approach to collecting patient-reported QoL outcomes at the end of breast, prostate or colorectal cancer treatment across five pilot Cancer Alliances (8 different hospitals). The lessons learned led to a Phase 4 pilot of a modified approach of centralised QoL data collection. Motion plans are also being set up for a nationwide data collection launch in June 2020.

Professor Harris is a practicing orthopaedic surgeon and academic. His clinical interests are in trauma surgery. His research interests broadly cover the topic of surgical effectiveness and clinical research. He conducts randomised trials, systematic reviews, cohort studies and methodological studies. Current evidence for surgery is poor, incomplete and largely observational and there is a discrepancy between drug and surgery standards in practice. The implications for the lack of surgical evidence are widespread, and multifaceted approaches from key stakeholders, such as surgeons, policy makers and consumers are required to change practice.