Our goal is to build an interdisciplinary team composed of researchers, doctors and decision/policy-makers with the skills and knowledge to improve colorectal cancer (CRC) services in Nova Scotia.
CRC is the second most prevalent cancer for both men and women in Canada. In Nova Scotia, approximately 760 new cases of CRC occur year, and there are estimated to be more than 4,000 CRC survivors. In terms of CRC care and treatment, researchers have found strong evidence of better outcomes when patients receive access to timely and appropriate CRC cancer services along the disease trajectory (i.e., from screening to follow-up/survivorship care). Therefore, there is a need to study the cancer system in Nova Scotia to determine how care practices are applied across the province, and whether people have access to quality CRC care. This information can help us improve cancer services in Nova Scotia, and consequently increase the likelihood of better outcomes for people diagnosed with CRC in our province.
Our team is studying access to CRC services along the cancer care continuum (diagnosis, surgery, systemic therapy and radiation therapy, follow-up care, and advanced disease/palliative care) as well as in two potentially vulnerable populations: adults with mental illness and children/youth with solid tumor cancers. Specifically, our studies focus on developing methods and tools to measure timely and equitable access to and quality of colorectal cancer services, as well as exploring methods to integrate access and quality and measure the impact on outcomes. We also develop and test methods for the synthesis and transfer of findings to improve the quality of cancer care in Nova Scotia. This includes dedicated knowledge broker to facilitate our findings being used to shape decision- and policy-making in those specific areas where cancer services need improvement. To accomplish our objectives, we are conducting pilot studies in nine areas. Through these pilot studies, we will develop the baseline data systems, methods, and tools needed to conduct full-scale studies.
We are a multidisciplinary team of cancer researchers, clinicians, and decision-makers. Our research and clinical expertise includes medical and radiation oncology, epidemiology, family medicine, gastroenterology, surgery, palliative medicine, pediatrics, pathology, health services, gender analysis, inequity analysis, and knowledge translation.
Our decision/policy-makers are from the Department of Health and Wellness, Cancer Care Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Cancer Society-Nova Scotia Division. These team members share their perspectives and expertise surrounding access and quality issues in cancer care, and their abilities to influence policy and decision making that supports quality and timely patient care are invaluable to our ability to improve cancer care delivery in Nova Scotia.
CIHR/CCNS Team: ACCESS is supported by a team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and local partners: Cancer Care Nova Scotia, Capital District Health Authority, Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine, the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, and the Department of Health and Wellness, Government of Nova Scotia.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of these organizations.