20 Years of SMICS: Building better cancer care together
In 2025, SMICS celebrated 20 years of supporting our region and community. This milestone marks two decades of collaboration, innovation, and dedication to improving outcomes for all of those impacted by cancer and receiving treatment in the Southern Melbourne region.
For 20 years SMICS has helped shape a more connected and responsive cancer care system. From strengthening partnerships with member health services to driving initiatives aligned with the Victorian Cancer Plan.
Open each year in the timeline below to explore our key projects and activities from the past 20 years.
- The Integrated Cancer Services (ICS) are established by the Department of Health. The role of the ICS is to support the implementation of government policy, improve the quality of cancer service delivery and ensure patients have equitable access to high-quality, multidisciplinary care regardless of their location.
- SMICS begins implementing Victoria’s multidisciplinary care policy within the Southern Melbourne region. As part of the implementation, SMICS established and administered Cancer Multidisciplinary Meetings (MDMs) across four member health services.
- SMICS continues to monitor the quality of MDMs within the Southern Melbourne region through our annual CSPI Audit. Today, over 80% of patients treated in public hospitals within the SMICS region have evidence of MDM treatment planning documented in their medical record.
- SMICS partnered with Cancer Council Victoria and member health services to develop a set of accredited communication skills workshops. These workshops covered discussing bad news, relaying a new diagnosis, stopping active treatment, addressing end-of-life care and conducting family meetings. Facilitators trained and conducted the workshops across the SMICS catchment with the support of SMICS-funded actors for over six years. SMICS member health services continue to deliver this training.
- SMICS commissioned an MDM Meeting Management System to facilitate improved access to clinical information and support MDMs, multidisciplinary care planning and documentation across southern Melbourne. This system was used for a number of years at all four member health services and is still in use at Monash Health today.
- In 2013, SMICS sought to address the supportive care gap for people with metastatic breast cancer by supportive professional development and the development of a model of care and clinical pathway. This work also led to the establishment of the Breast care Nurse Practitioner role at Monash Health and the appointment of a McGrath Foundation-funded Breast Care Nurse role at Peninsula Health.
- SMICS strengthened the cancer nurse specialist workforce by supporting the adoption of the eviQ Antineoplastic Drug Administration Course (ADAC) region wide to upskill nurses in managing and administering antineoplastic drugs across southern Melbourne.
- SMICS led a statewide lung cancer service redesign project across five hospitals to improve the timeliness of care for newly diagnosed lung cancer patients. The project resulted in reductions in time to chemotherapy and radiotherapy and an increase in the proportion of patients presented at lung cancer MDMs. Many of the services established at this time are now playing an important role in the implementation of the National Lung Cancer Screening Program.
- The first pancreatic cancer consultation by the VICS Optimal Care Summits program led to a collaboration between SMICS and the North Eastern Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service (NEMICS) to deliver the Pancreatic Cancer Resectability Project. This project agreed on the use of a common statewide definition for resectability for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, ensuring consistent management of pancreatic cancer patients and developed a synoptic reporting tool for pancreatic CTs to support appropriate treatment and improved patient outcomes for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
- The project was later used as the basis for an MRFF grant received by Associate Professor Charles Pilgrim and the Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancer Registry at Monash University to pilot the tool nationally. To date, 24 of a planned 33 sites nationally are using the synoptic reporting tool and over 2,500 patients have been eligible to have their scans reported with the tool.
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, the SMICS Team pivoted work to provide practical support within member health services by working in cancer wards, supporting a transition from face-to-face meetings and appointments to telehealth and developing protocols for COVID screening, pre-appointment/treatment and management of patients returning positive results. This work occurred in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
- The nine Victorian Integrated Cancer Services (ICS) rebranded from ICS to the Victorian Integrated Cancer Services (VICS), better reflecting their work to improve cancer care throughout Victoria.
- SMICS launched the SMICS Funding Program, offering grant funding to eligible health services for innovative projects aimed at improving the quality of patient care and experience. The program fosters partnerships between health providers and consumers to enhance coordination, accessibility, and quality of care, ensuring better support for all people affected by cancer. Over three rounds (2021–2025), SMICS allocated $1.53 million to 13 projects from 44 applications, focusing on equity, care closer to home, supportive care, survivorship, palliative care, and multidisciplinary care.
- SMICS provides support to establish Symptom and Urgent Review clinics (SURC) at Monash Health, Alfred Health and Peninsula Health to reduce ED and hospital admissions and improve patient experience and outcomes.
- SMICS begins a project to address variations from the Melanoma Optimal Care Pathway Project (OCP) t its four member health services. The project led to the successful development of a consistent, stage-specific follow-up guideline for melanoma patients and the creation of two new standardised patient resources. Both patient resources are now available in protocols at Alfred Health, Monash Health and Peninsula Health. The project was published in 2025.
- SMICS begins work to implement the Optimal Care Pathway (OCP) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People with cancer. The OCCAP was published online in 2024 and aims to decrease disparities in cancer outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through a learning package on delivering culturally competent cancer services.
- SMICS partners with HRICS to lead the VICS statewide MDM Quality Program, which will operationalise and support alignment with the Victorian Department of Health’s MDM Quality Monitoring Framework. The project aims to identify practical solutions to address rising patient volumes, resource constraints, and administrative pressures, making MDMs more sustainable and clinician-friendly and supporting better outcomes for patients.
- SMICS in partnership with HRICS publishes the Care of the Older Person with Cancer Toolkit. This toolkit helps to identify and address existing barriers, examples of existing geriatric oncology services, and key resources to support staff education, patients and carers.
- SMICS begins work to align new initiatives with the Victorian Cancer Plan 2024–2028, with a renewed focus on the quality of MDMs and cancer care and services for priority populations in southern Melbourne.
From pioneering initiatives to strengthening partnerships, SMICS has spent 20 years improving outcomes for those affected by cancer in Southern Melbourne.
Read more about SMICS and our work today in the 2024–2025 Annual Report.
