VICS Optimal Care Summits brain cancer consultation 2020
The first brain cancer consultation by the VICS Optimal Care Summit program was held in 2020.
The online summit in October attracted 80 active participants and 35 observers, from a variety of disciplines and organisations across Victoria.
Recommendations
The advisory group below prioritised the following variations for further action. See their recommendation letter for more detail.
- Increase the number of people with brain tumours participating in early palliative care planning and receiving palliative care services in the 6–12 months prior to death.
- Increase the number of people with brain tumours who receive radiotherapy within 4–6 weeks post-surgery, through timely referrals for patients repatriated to regional areas for radiotherapy.
- Investigate variation in length of stay for surgery and biopsy admissions, with a view to reducing the number of people with brain tumours and a hospital stay longer than 7 days after surgery.
- Increase participation of regional referrers in multidisciplinary meeting (MDM) discussions regarding patients being referred and repatriated to regional Victoria for post-surgery treatment and care.
Impacts
Timeliness of advance care planning and referral to palliative care was identified as a possible area for improvement at this and earlier summits (e.g. Pancreatic Cancer 2017). In 2020, the VICS began a scoping project to understand current practices relating to palliative care referral and advance care planning in Victoria. The final report from that project made 18 recommendations to address variations in the timing of access to palliative care and advance care planning, collection and storage of data, promotion of palliative care services, processes, models of care, and research and quality improvement activities.
Local initiatives to implement recommendations from this summit include work at SMICS to increase frequency of neuro-oncology multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs) in the Southern Melbourne region, formalise pathways for regional health service clinicians to attend metropolitan MDMs, and better address the specific supportive care needs of brain cancer patients.
Summit records
- Policy context presentation video
- Data presentation video
- Consumer perspective video 1
- Consumer perspective video 2
- Summit summary report (PDF)
- Evaluation (PDF)
- Summit recommendations letter (PDF)
VICS Optimal Care Summits
Expert advisory group
- Prof. Hui Gan (Co-chair) – Medical oncologist, Austin Health
- A/Prof. Andrew Danks (Co-chair) – Neurosurgeon, Monash Health
- Dr Vishal Boolell – Medical Oncologist, Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre
- Dr Rebecca Chapman – Palliative care physician and Medical oncologist, Bendigo Health
- Dr Lawrence Cher – Neuro-oncologist, Austin Health and Epworth Healthcare
- Dr Jonathon Clark – Neuropathologist, Austin Health and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
- Dr Mike Dally – Radiation Oncologist, Icon Cancer Centre and Epworth Healthcare
- Dr Rana Dhillon – Neurosurgeon, Barwon Health
- Dr Tony Dowling – Medical Oncologist, St Vincent’s Hospital
- Prof. Kate Drummond – Neurosurgeon, Royal Melbourne Hospital
- Dr Ronnie Frielich – Neuro-oncologist, Monash Health and Cabrini Health
- A/Prof. Martin Hunn – Neurosurgeon, Alfred Health
- Dr Craig Macleod – Radiation oncologist, Genesis Care
- A/Prof. Paul Mitchell – Medical oncologist, Austin Health
- Prof. Jennifer Philip – Palliative care physician, St Vincent’s Hospital
- Dr Claire Phillips – Radiation oncologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
- Dr Simone Reeves – Radiation oncologist, Ballarat Health Services
- Dr Emma Reiterer – Nurse coordinator, Alfred Health and Cabrini Health
- Dr Ayesha Saqib – Medical oncologist, GV Health
- Dr Mori Wada – Radiation oncologist, Austin Health and Genesis Care.