Current Activities

Symptom Tracking & Patient Reported Outcomes

Symptom management research has demonstrated the effectiveness of Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) using mobile technologies to stay in touch with patients.

Patients receive a questionnaire by SMS asking them how they are feeling between treatments or post treatment.

If a patient reports that they are experiencing severe symptoms an alert is then sent in real time to the care team for follow up.   

GICS is planning a 12-mth trial providing access of a PRO platform to a number of health service entities within the Grampians region.

For more information contact Glenn Reeves 

This project involves the development of formal processes to ensure supportive care is planned for rural patients who are completing radiation therapy treatment at BAROC. 

The team at BAROC have joined with rural health services to plan care as close to home as possible for rural patients. 

For more information contact Lea Marshall

Community Based Psycho-Oncology Services

Collaborative care models in which hospital-based staff supervise community-based clinicians can lead to successful outcomes.  A successful pilot program investigated the feasibility of a collaborative care model of caring for cancer patients with depression. On the basis of this an extension to regional and rural settings is proposed as is the broadened focus on anxiety, adjustment and disruptive fears. 

It is anticipated the pilot will incorporate an initial training focus, referral and reporting processes, peer supervision model and access to liaison consultant psychiatry where indicated.

For more information contact Kerry Davidson.

• Attracted $1.3m of service improvement grants to the region to improve the patient's experience of care.
• Conducted grants program - resulting in 4 new services being funded on ongoing basis.
•  Implemented 5 new referral processes streamlining systems to achieve more timely access to care.
• Established rapid access lung clinic at BHS and improved timeframes from referral to first treatment in line with the lung cancer OCP (42 days).
• Built capacity of the Grampians nursing and allied health workforce to facilitate wellness and exercise programs, resulting in delivery of quarterly programs on ongoing basis
• Empowered patients through developing/piloting 11 patient resources using a co-design approach with consumers (Including My Cancer Care Record, 7 podcasts, immunotherapy cards, chemotherapy poster, my cancer survivor guide
• Increased number of MDMs conducted by 13%, resulting in 3819 patient discussions.
• Established a supportive care MDM for rural patients, resulting in 244 patients being discussed and referral to local allied health services as required.
• Facilitated regional clinical representation at Tumour Summits, follow up discussions at the local level, and implementation of 7 local service improvement initiatives. 
• Raised awareness of optimal care pathways, so that 86% of Grampians Region cancer care professionals have a high level of awareness of OCPs. 
• Delivered a health literacy program over three phases, involving 1,211 participants.  This project resulted in implementation of 7 prevention/early detection programs across 4 small towns involving 600 community members.  A toolkit was developed in partnership with local stakeholders and Deakin University to guide this activity. 
• Enhanced workforce capacity for nurses across the Grampians with 3005 attendances across 341 training events in the Region to ensure quality, safe patient care. 
• Increased the number of cancer resources nurses (nurse navigators) to 7 across 6 rural health services, and produced a toolkit to aid other health services implement these roles into their model of care. 
• Sponsored 450 staff attendances at conferences and workshops for skill development and dissemination of research and evaluation activities. 

The number of diagnosed cancers has declined between by 12% since the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic.

GICS is working with health services across the region to plan for the increase in service demand.

For more information contact Sharon Daly.

• multidisciplinary 
• supportive and 
• coordination of care

Many of our partner health services participate in the annual audit.

GICS is supporting the implementation of the MDM Quality Framework. 

This involves surveying MDM participants regarding their experiences - and this year include a focus on the experience of MDM in the COVID environment. 

For more information contact Louise Patterson.