In healthcare, like any other business, accurate data is used to drive better outcomes and better performance. The Australian Cancer Plan unveiled in November 2023 describes cancer data as an “essential asset to drive optimal cancer care” and significant efforts have gone into developing a national cancer data . The Plan includes the development of the National Cancer Data Framework which aims to address current limitations of data, including delays in access, interoperability, security and sovereignty. It also includes investment in additional systems of data collection of patient reported-outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs). The priority of the Plan is the development of an integrated data ecosystem for all cancer control efforts, including cancer survivorship care.
This presentation will critically review the existing approaches to survivorship data collection in Australia and compare it to the data monitoring used for other aspects of cancer control. It will review the requirements for survivorship data and how these could be realised within the Australian health care system to ensure that data informs the clinical care decision making and survivorship care planning at the health system level.