Access to Innovative Therapies & Optimal Care

Theme Co-leads:

    Norman Cook, Geoffrey Cuvelier, Paul Gibson, Lisa Goodyear, David Mitchell, Vijay Ramaswamy, Patrick Sullivan and Derek Tsang

Healthcare systems can be complex and overwhelming, especially for children and families facing a cancer diagnosis. Timely and straightforward access to appropriate resources, state-of-the-art therapies, and supportive care can positively impact treatment adherence, recovery rates, and overall well-being. Helping patients and their families navigate healthcare systems more efficiently may increase their chances of receiving the right treatment at the right time, and ultimately improve cancer control outcomes and quality of life. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that systemic obstacles are identified and dismantled, and pathways are streamlined, to ensure ease of access to innovative therapies and optimal care in the future.

The aim of the Access to Innovative Therapies & Optimal Care research theme is to improve access to innovative and novel therapies and optimal care through the development of sustainable pathways and better system navigation support for pediatric cancer patients and their families.

Priorities

  1. Understand the health system’s resource and support gaps, as well as the needs of patients and their families, to use this information to develop centralized frameworks, processes and resources to improve access to innovative therapies and optimal care.
  2. Identify provincial barriers to the provision of equitable access to optimal care.
  3. Identify the health system’s delays or financial/resource constraints to timely access to novel therapies.