Improving our capacity to sustain new knowledge and tools in cancer care

There are many tools and technologies shown to benefit cancer patients, yet these tools and technologies are not always integrated into clinical practice on an ongoing, long-term basis. Dr Robin Urquhart and her team are working to understand how cancer care teams support the long-term use of these tools and technologies and how they gauge success and impact. Their findings will better equip cancer care teams to sustain new tools and technologies in their programs so that more cancer patients have the best possible experiences and outcomes. We can make huge gains in terms of improving cancer patients? outcomes in Canada if we put into practice what we already know to be beneficial. Over the past decade, large investments have been made across Canada in order to implement and spread beneficial tools and technologies so that more people have access to high-quality cancer care. At the same time, there has been very little research on how to increase the chances of long-term use (sustainability), what factors impact long-term use and how to evaluate the long-term success and impacts of these tools and technologies. From a cancer control standpoint, this is a major gap in knowledge, since policy-makers and other key players in cancer care are interested in understanding and maximizing the long-term impact of their investments. Supported by a team building grant, this international research team has spent the last year laying the foundation for this study. Data from across Canada shows that many gaps exist, across the entire cancer continuum, between what the research says is ?best practice? and what actually happens in clinical care. Even when research findings are initially put into practice, oftentimes they are not sustained in the long-term as individuals and organizations revert back to their ?usual ways of working?. This poor sustainability means many cancer patients do not benefit from the best care possible. Focusing on tools and technologies that have been implemented in cancer survivorship care, this study will uncover factors that influence sustainability, explore the processes (approaches and strategies) that enable sustainability, identify the different ways that teams have gauged sustainability and assess team?s capacity for sustainability. To do this work, the researchers will carry out interviews and surveys with people across Canada involved in the implementation of a range of innovations in cancer survivorship care. In Canada, the leaders who developed our national cancer control strategy estimated that cancer outcomes could improve by as much as 30% if we routinely applied existing research evidence in practice. This includes evidence related to screening, early detection, treatment and supportive care. Thus, we must improve our capacity to sustain new tools and technologies that are supported by research evidence so that more patients benefit from the great advances we have made across the continuum of cancer research. To achieve this, we cannot rely on our instincts about what might make this happen; instead, we need to conduct sound research on sustainability influences and processes. Doing so will lead to sustained use of tools and technologies shown to improve patient outcomes, including increased survival and improved quality of life, and enhance the capacity of teams and organizations to sustain high-quality cancer care.