24 September 2021

The Health Policy Partnership (HPP) was thrilled to launch its new policy brief, Fostering system readiness in cancer care, at a webinar concurrent with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress. The brief analyses the effectiveness of various assessment frameworks within cancer care and provides recommendations on how readiness in cancer care can be defined, evaluated and operationalised. It was developed with input from an expert International Advisory Group.

The webinar took place on 21 September and was moderated by HPP Managing Director Dr Suzanne Wait, who began with a short background to HPP’s work in the area of cancer care readiness and radioligand therapy. Dr Wait then introduced the first speaker, George Wharton (London School of Economics and Political Science), who presented a case study on the work the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) are doing to assess health system sustainability and resilience using the PHSSR assessment framework. More information about this project can be found here.

This was followed by a second case study, from Professor Ken Herrmann (University Hospital Essen), who used the Radioligand Therapy Readiness Assessment Framework as an example of applying a framework to assess system readiness for integrating a cancer intervention.

After the case studies came a panel discussion and Q&A session with a group of multidisciplinary experts, featuring Alex Filicevas (World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition and All.Can International), Pascal Garel (European Hospital and Healthcare Federation), Antonella Cardone (European Cancer Patient Coalition), and George Wharton. The panel discussed ways we can work together to create sustainable, resilient and prepared cancer care systems across Europe, touching on the use of data in cancer care, the importance of personalised care, and the need to measure the efficiency of different therapies and diagnostics. The panel wrapped up with speakers identifying key barriers, such as governance and cost.

Dr Anne-Marie Baird (Lung Cancer Europe) was the final speaker of the event and delivered a pertinent talk on how cancer care readiness affects patients. Dr Baird closed the webinar with a reminder that health systems need to account for all stages of the lives of people with cancer:

‘Living well with cancer when you’re not in active treatment is an important stage of readiness and support. We need to acknowledge a holistic view of cancer care that doesn’t finish at the end of treatment.’

HPP would like to thank all of the expert speakers and panellists for taking part in this event and, most importantly, for their essential work in cancer care. We’d also like to thank Dr Wait for her moderating, the HPP team for facilitating the event, and everyone who attended for joining us and making it such an engaging session.

If you are interested in hearing more about future events and updates from the radioligand project, please fill out this form: https://hpolicy.co/RLTeventSurvey