Cancer Navigation

Can­cer nav­i­ga­tion refers to how a patient nav­i­gates can­cer care and is a key ele­ment of coor­di­nat­ed, per­son-cen­tred care and sup­port. Can­cer nav­i­ga­tion works to improve access to care and con­ti­nu­ity of care, par­tic­u­lar­ly among pop­u­la­tions expe­ri­enc­ing unmet needs and dis­par­i­ties in can­cer care.

The Can­cer Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work (SCN) rat­ed effi­cient and equi­table can­cer nav­i­ga­tion as the high­est pri­or­i­ty to improve and address in 2023. This was iden­ti­fied through a com­pre­hen­sive work­shop­ping process under­tak­en with the SCCN to iden­ti­fy and pri­ori­tise net­work projects.

We’re excit­ed to part­ner with the Car­ing Futures Insti­tute (CFI) on the ​‘Can­cer Nav­i­ga­tion Project’, to devel­op South Aus­tralian can­cer nav­i­ga­tion frame­work, which imag­ines a future where the high­est stan­dard of health­care is avail­able to all and where peo­ple are tru­ly at the centre.

The Can­cer Nav­i­ga­tion Project will soon com­mence con­sumer and stake­hold­er (includ­ing can­cer care pro­fes­sion­als, gov­ern­ment, and non-gov­ern­ment organ­i­sa­tions) engage­ment to co-design the frame­work and imple­men­ta­tion plan and con­sid­er appli­ca­tion to the South Aus­tralian Can­cer Plan cur­rent­ly under development.

The SA Can­cer Plan is envis­aged to set the future direc­tion of can­cer care across SA and helps to iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties to cre­ate a coor­di­nat­ed, inte­grat­ed, equi­table, evi­dence-based, per­son­alised care sys­tem across the can­cer con­tin­u­um. Key intend­ed clin­i­cal ben­e­fits include:

• Improved time­ly access to and pro­vi­sion of safe and acces­si­ble ser­vices that are inclu­sive of mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary teams, as close to home as pos­si­ble for patients.
• Improved health sta­tus of the South Aus­tralian pop­u­la­tion whilst devel­op­ing a health sys­tem that facil­i­tates equi­ty of access.
• Cre­ation of a respon­sive health sys­tem that meets the needs of the community.