What is survivorship?
Prostate cancer Survivorship encompasses men’s health and wellbeing from the point of diagnosis and is essential to cancer care.
Research in Prostate Cancer Survivorship
The Australian Prostate Centre (APC) partnered with the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Prostate Cancer Survivorship (CRE-PCS) to undertake a ‘mapping’ exercise of the current APC model of survivorship care against the Prostate Cancer Survivorship Essentials Framework (‘Essentials Framework’).
This mapping project has identified the current APC model of survivorship care closely aligns with the Essentials Framework. Key strengths of the APC model of survivorship care include: co-location of 13 survivorship care services encompassing medical, nursing and allied health services within one centre; a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to patient-centred prostate cancer survivorship care which is highly valued by patients; a subsidised fee and billing model to facilitate access to evidence-based interventions and survivorship care for all men and their families; and a dedicated focus on continuity of care and clinical surveillance in conjunction with their GP.
Next steps
Funding obtained by University of Technology Sydney (UTS) now provides an opportunity for the APC to again partner with UTS and the CRE-PCS and build on the findings of this mapping project. The next project will facilitate the co-design, implementation and evaluation of an intervention that strengthens prostate cancer survivorship care across the APC and supports the team of multidisciplinary clinicians and health professionals in the delivery of best evidence-based survivorship care. The project will also seek the experiences of consumers (patients and carers) to determine the impact of the intervention on the patient experience.
Contact our research team at APC to find out how you can partner with us and get involved with our ground-breaking research.
