ACSC Health Professionals Events

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Victorian Cancer Survivorship Research Forum

Research collaboration and networking opportunities for health professionals

• Thursday, 25 May 2023 | 2.00 -3.30pm

Register here

The Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC) together with Victorian Cancer Agency (VCA) host the virtual Victorian Cancer Survivorship Research Forums.

This free forum is an opportunity for Victorian-based healthcare professionals, researchers and organisations to hear about the excellent work that is underway by interstate experts and fellow Victorians working in cancer survivorship.

The forums feature presentations from research experts followed a facilitated group discussion.

The forum is open to anyone interested or involved in cancer survivorship research, so if you’re a researcher, clinician, student, consumer, policymaker or other health professional, please join us!

Victorian Cancer Survivorship Community of Practice

Opportunity to discuss cancer survivorship and network with health professionals

• Thursday, 15 June 2023
• Wednesday, 4 October 2023

Register here

The Victorian Cancer Survivorship Community of Practice forum brings together health professionals with an interest in cancer survivorship and the implementation of new models of care and provides an opportunity to discuss key aspects of cancer survivorship. 

This free forum is open to those working with cancer survivors from all sectors including hospital, community or non-government organisations, researchers and policymakers.

The February 2023 Community of Practice presentations included:

• Prevention and Wellbeing: Patient Experience Strategic Plan 2023-2025 and Supporting Carers Strategy 2022-2026 – Ms Fiona Mouritz, Patient and Consumer Experience Lead & Ms Cassie Haynes, Carer Liaison Project Officer, Peter Mac
• State-wide Cancer Shared Care program – Ms Catherine Lambert, Statewide Project Coordinator – Cancer Shared Care, Gippsland Primary Health Network
• Clinical Placement Program in Cancer Survivorship – Ms Lin Chai, Project Manager, ACSC, Ms Sharyn McGowan Allied Health Team Leader, Cancer Centre Bendigo Health and Ms Louise Weir, Physiotherapist, Kerang District Health

The February 2023 event resource list is available now.

For further information, you can contact the ACSC team (03) 8559 6220 or [email protected]

This is a joint initiative between the Department of Health and the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre.

Webinar: Fear of Cancer Recurrence

Education for health professionals

27 June 2023, 7:00pm-8:30pm (AEST).

The ACSC will continue its partnership with the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, Cancer Council and the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia to host the webinar Fear of Cancer Recurrence. The webinar will be facilitated by Prof Phyllis Butow (BA (hons), MPH, MClinPsych, PhD) and will include panellists sharing their expertise on the fear of cancer recurrence, the highest reported unmet need among cancer survivors.

Register here.

For enquires please email [email protected]

Parkville Cancer Survivorship Clinical Champions Forum

Opportunity to share survivorship initiatives and knowledge for health professionals

• 2023 dates to be announced soon

The Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC) invites you to the virtual Parkville Survivorship Clinical Champions forum. This forum provides an opportunity for participants to network, share their practice and expand their knowledge of survivorship care in cancer, contributing to survivorship initiatives and projects.

The forum is open to anyone interested in cancer survivorship care, including oncologists, surgeons, nurses, multidisciplinary team members and allied health staff.

For enquires please email [email protected]

Delivering Innovative Cancer Survivorship Care

Education for health professionals

• This course will next be run in 2024

This free course is open to nursing and allied health professionals and provides participants with skills, knowledge and resources to implement cancer survivorship care.

Following a recent review, the course is in the process of being updated to ensure current, evidence-based content. The revised course will include practical tools, tips and resources designed to help improve care for cancer survivors, with the aim of strengthening survivorship care capability in the health system.

Past programs have included:

• Key elements of survivorship including the common experiences of cancer survivors
• Promoting wellness and self-management
• Motivational interviewing techniques

For current ACSC initiatives supporting professional development in survivorship education, visit our survivorship education page.

For enquires please email [email protected]

Past Events

The speakers included:

• Dr. Amanda Hordern – Facilitator
• Dr. Rosalie Power (Associate Research Fellow) – Panellist
• Prof. Kate White (Professor Cancer Nursing) – Panellist
• Eliza Bailey (Radiotherapy Nurse) – Panellist
• Kevin Ancog (Prostate and Cancer Specialist Nurse) – Panellist
• Russ Gluyas (he/him) – Consumer Advocate/Panellist

Watch the recording here

The Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC), based at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, in partnership with Cancer Council Victoria, Clinical Oncology Society of Australia and the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia presented the Supporting Cancer Survivors to Address Fatigue and Weight Problems: Inspiring, Motivating and Guiding for Change webinar on Friday, 10 June 2022.

The speakers and panellists included:

• Professor Ray Chan, Director and Professor of Cancer Nursing, Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University
• Dr David Mizrahi, Chair of COSA’s Exercise and Cancer Executive Committee
• Jane Stewart, Clinical Lead Dietitian, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
• Clem Byard, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Cancer Council Victoria
• Paul Malouf, Consumer representative

The webinar focused on the role allied health professionals play in providing cancer survivorship care, particularly with the management of fatigue and weight problems.

Facilitated by Prof Ray Chan, the webinar included a survivor’s experience in cancer survivorship and an interactive panel discussion on the topics of nutrition, exercise, motivational interviewing techniques and referral pathways followed by a Q&A session.  

During the session, participants developed an understanding of:

• the perspective of a cancer survivor on making healthy behaviour changes
• the benefits of nutrition and physical activity for cancer survivors to reduce the risk of recurrence and development of new cancers / conditions
• principles of motivation, ambivalence and identifying stages of change
• confidence in motivational interviewing skills, including facilitating change talk, strengths based language and tailoring such techniques to be used in practice
• referral pathways and be able to locate evidence-based tools and resources to support specific work with cancer survivors

Watch the recording here.

Resource list for this event.

4th Victorian Cancer Survivorship Conference

The virtual 4th Victorian Cancer Survivorship Conference ‘Shifting Gears: Rethinking Survivorship’, held 24-25 March 2022, was a tremendous success. Co-hosted by the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC) and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) Alliance, over 260 local and international delegates registered.

The conference theme, ‘Shifting Gears: Rethinking survivorship’ considered how recent advances in cancer survivorship research and care could be adopted, as well as how future systems could be transformed to better meet the needs of the growing survivorship population; with particular recognition to the changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two-day conference included a strong line-up of keynote speakers included international experts, Professor Smita Bhatia, Director of Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, University of Alabama, USA, and Professor Christoffer Johansen, Head of Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. National experts included Professor Ray Chan, Director and Professor of Cancer Nursing, Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University; Professor Linda Denehy, Professor of Physiotherapy, University of Melbourne, Professor Zoe Wainer, Deputy Secretary for Public Health, Victorian Government;  Dr Karen Price, President RACGP and Neville Board, Chief Digital Health Officer, Victoria.  

Dr Karen Price, President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, shares her personal experience as a cancer patient and survivor.

The ACSC team were pleased to present seven abstracts (including oral presentations from Helana Kelly, Tegan Nash, and medical student Megan Petrie), the Health Services Research team presented another five (including an oral presentation from Colin Wood), plus many other Peter Mac abstracts were showcased. The program included many well-known Peter Mac experts, including Dr David Speakman, Dr Kylie Mason, Dr Greg Wheeler, Yvonne Panek-Hudson, A/Prof Kate Burbury, Jenelle Loeliger, Rebecca McIntosh, Nicole Kinnane, Emma Vaughan, Dr Julia Lai-Kwon, Prof Grant McArthur and Prof Michael Jefford.

It was positive to see so much quality​ work to improve the standard of care for cancer survivors featured throughout the conference. We congratulate the winners of the conference awards:

• Best Student Presentation – Tiffany Li
• Best Oral Presentation – Dr Fiona Crawford-Williams
• Best Poster Presentation – Tegan Isley
• Best Online Engagement – Lisa Taylor-Lovett

Conference delegates were enthralled by the great debate, ‘The use of digital and remote care options will increase inequity’, led by passionate debaters Dr Ben Smith, Joanne Hickman (consumer advocate) and Dr Kalinda Griffiths in the affirmative team and Ms Margaret Polacska (consumer advocate) Ms Kate Burbury and Dr Mahesh Iddawela in the opposing team.

Consumer engagement was strong and the conference proudly received the #withconsumers tick from the Consumers Health Forum of Australia. Meg Rynderman OAM and Natalie Maxwell-Davis shared perspectives on consumer involvement in survivorship-focussed research.

The Great Debate, ‘The use of digital and remote care options will increase inequity’

Further details can be found at the 4th Victorian Cancer Survivorship Conference.  Delegates will have access to the content via the virtual platform for twelve months. We are already looking forward to the 5th Victorian Cancer Survivorship Conference in 2024!

Webinar: Nurses integrating optimal survivorship care

The Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre co-hosted the “Nurses integrating optimal survivorship care“ webinar on Tuesday, 12 October 2021. Prof Ray Chan facilitated an exciting combination of presentations followed by a robust panel discussion on current models of care. 

This was a collaboration between the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre, Cancer Nurses Society of Australia, Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, and Cancer Council Victoria.  

Watch the webinar here

To read more about the presenters and panelists please review their biographies here.

Webinar: Allied health providing cancer survivorship care

The Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC), Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA), Cancer Nurses Society of Australia (CNSA) and Cancer Council Victoria (CCV) presented the Allied health providing cancer survivorship care webinar. This facilitated panel discussion brought together experts who shared their insights on the context, challenges and opportunities in cancer survivorship care in the rural or regional setting.

Watch the webinar here.

To read more about the presenters please review their biographies here.

The resource list referred to in this webinar is available here.