CIHR/CCNS Team in Access to Colorectal Cancer Services in Nova Scotia

We will study access to quality colorectal cancer services along the cancer care continuum: diagnosis, surgery, treatment, follow-up care, and advanced disease/palliative care. We will also study access to quality cancer services in two potentially vulnerable populations where access to quality services may be low: adults with mental illness and children/youth with cancer. Our overall goal is to build an interdisciplinary team composed of researchers, doctors and decision/policy-makers with the skills and knowledge to improve cancer services in Nova Scotia. Specifically, we will focus on developing methods and tools to measure access to and quality of colorectal cancer services, using data from the Nova Scotia Cancer Registry and other large databases held in Nova Scotia. We will also explore ways of measuring the impact of current services on the health of Nova Scotians diagnosed with colorectal cancer. By examining the whole cancer care continuum, we can better understand how to improve the entire system without disadvantaging one aspect to improve another. This is important in a small province like Nova Scotia where a change in one aspect of the cancer care system is likely to have an impact elsewhere in the system. Our team includes influential decision/policy-makers (e.g., from the Department of Health, Cancer Care Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Cancer Society-Nova Scotia Division) who can use the research findings to initiate policy changes targeted at those specific areas where access to quality cancer services needs improvement. Once we have established tools to measure access and quality for colorectal cancer, we will explore their usefulness for patients with other types of cancer in Nova Scotia.