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VICS Optimal Care Summits prostate cancer consultation 2016

Statewide - Adult

The VICS Optimal Care Summits program held its first strategic consultation on prostate cancer care in Victoria in 2016.

The live summit event on 25 May 2016 involved 71 clinical, government, and not-for-profit sector participants. Representatives attended from the Victorian Department of Health, Cancer Council Victoria, Prostate Cancer
Foundation of Australia, Movember Foundation, Victorian Primary Health Care Networks, and the Victorian Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (PCOR-Vic).

The expert advisory group below was then tasked with prioritising action ideas from the summit. They ranked the following 3 areas as priorities for action over the next 12 months at the state and local levels.

Recommendations

  1. Promote universal contribution to the Victorian Prostate Outcomes Clinical Registry (PCOR-Vic) to clinicians and health services who are not currently participating
  2. Prioritise for statewide action the issue of addressing quality of life needs for men with prostate cancer, through coordinated approaches using existing and new integrated models of care
  3. Promote the adoption of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing guidelines to ensure appropriate early diagnosis and management of prostate cancer.

These recommendations gave rise to large-scale projects by the VICS, Primary Health Networks, and non-government organisations (NGOs). Impacts noted at the repeat prostate cancer summit in 2020 included:

  • The percentage of people with prostate cancer participating in the Victorian Prostate Outcomes Clinical Registry (PCOR-Vic) increased from ~66% in 2016 to ~90% in 2019
  • Around 6000 people were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019, compared to around 4000 in 2014, with the rate of diagnosis directly proportionate to the number of PSA tests carried out
  • Quality-of-life issues after diagnosis of prostate cancer were addressed using existing and integrated models of care – For example, participants in the TrueNTH project reported lower sexual dysfunction compared to a control group.

Summit records

VICS Optimal Care Summits
Program overview
Consultation process
Impacts
Other consultations

Expert advisory group

  • Prof. Jeremy Millar (Co-chair) – Radiation oncologist, Alfred Health; Principal investigator, Prostate Cancer Registry Victoria; Executive Chair Clinical Networks, Cancer Council Victoria
  • Damien Bolton (Co-chair) – Head of urology, Austin Health
  • Prof. Ian Davis – Medical oncologist and Head of Eastern Health Clinical School
  • Mr Lachlan Dodds – Urologist, Ballarat Health Services
  • A/Prof. Sue Evans – Registry custodian, Australian Prostate Cancer Clinical Registry
  • Mr Mark Frydenberg – Head of Urology, Monash Medical Centre
  • Mr Rohan Hall – Urologist, Bendigo Health
  • Dr Mahesh Iddawela – Medical oncologist, Gippsland Cancer Centre
  • Mr Paul Kearns – Urologist, Barwon Health and Portland District Hospital
  • Mr Nathan Lawrentschuk – Urologist, Austin Health and Peter Mac.
  • A/Prof. Paul Mitchell – Medical oncologist, Austin Health
  • A/Prof. Declan Murphy – Urologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Epworth Healthcare
  • Dr David Pook – Medical oncologist, Cabrini Health and Monash Medical Centre
  • Dr Keen-Hun Tai – Radiation oncologist, Peter Mac. and Epworth Healthcare
  • A/Prof. Justin Tse – General practitioner, St Vincent’s Cinical School.