Harnessing data for better cancer care

HPP and The Health Value Alliance partnered with All.Can International to produce a policy report on the value that high-quality data bring to every aspect of cancer care.

Context

Cancer care has seen significant progress over the past decades and cancer is a top healthcare priority in many countries. But for cancer strategies to succeed, we need innovation in how our health systems use the available resources. Data are central to ensuring cancer care is not only innovative, but delivered in the most beneficial and efficient ways.

We have long recognised the importance of timely health data in care planning and delivery, but issues remain. Data are collected in siloes, data across different stages of cancer care pathways are fragmented, and collection processes are seen as a burden on time-strapped healthcare professionals. Bias is also inherent in data, with limited efforts made to gain data that reflect the rich and complex nature of modern societies.

HPP partnered with The Health Value Alliance and All.Can International to investigate why health data are not being used to their full potential and how to overcome the prevailing issues. The aim of the project was to turn insights from research and real-life examples of data use into recommendations that policymakers and others can act upon to improve how we use data to deliver efficiency across the whole cancer care pathway. The resulting report looks at the most relevant types of data from a complex health data ecosystem and examines them in turn, not limited to any country or type of cancer.

What we’ve achieved

Through desk research examining over 400 abstracts and 100 peer-reviewed publications from the past five years, supported by grey literature, 16 expert interviews and 11 case studies, we have gained a picture of health data use that has immense potential to create an efficient system of care that best responds to the needs of people with cancer.

In partnership with The Health Value Alliance and the All.Can Data Working Group, we produced a policy report containing a number of recommendations for policymakers, supported with a summary of main points. We also developed a video and other communications materials to help All.Can International disseminate the report and its messages. The report was launched at All.Can Global Summit on 27–28 May 2021.

Work on this project continues; we are currently working on a paper which will summarise the role of health data in creating efficiency in cancer care, which we will submit to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.

Key partners and stakeholders

All.Can Data Working Group:

  • Sangeeta Agrawal, Helpsy Health
  • Antonella Cardone, European Cancer Patient Coalition
  • Ivana Cattaneo, Novartis
  • Dave Duplay, Vital Options International
  • Caroline Falciola, F. Hoffmann-La Roche
  • Alex Filicevas, World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition; All.Can president
  • Stefan Gijssels, Digestive Cancers Europe
  • Petra Hoogendoorn, Goings-On
  • Agnieszka Krukowska, Johnson & Johnson
  • Laura McDonald, Bristol Myers Squibb
  • Jan van Meerbeeck, Antwerp University Hospital
  • Matthijs Van Meerveld, Merck Sharp & Dohme
  • Borna Mueller, F. Hoffmann-La Roche
  • Vivek Muthu, Marivek Consulting
  • Kathy Oliver, International Brain Tumour Alliance
  • Titta Rosvall-Puplett, Bristol Myers Squibb
  • Christobel Saunders, University of Western Australia
  • Julian Shepelev, Baxter Healthcare
  • Puneet Singhal, Merck Sharp & Dohme
  • Henriette Thole, Novartis
  • Veronica Zilli, Johnson & Johnson
  • Matthew Hickey, The Health Value Alliance
  • Shannon Boldon, The Health Policy Partnership
  • Suzanne Wait, The Health Policy Partnership

External Advisory Committee:

  • Fatima Cardoso, Advanced Breast Cancer Global Alliance
  • Sybo Dijkstra, DigitalEurope
  • Nigel Hughes, Janssen and European Health Data and Evidence Network
  • Adrian Jonas, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
  • Sabrina Montante, Istituto Superiore di Sanità
  • Ray Pinto, DigitalEurope
  • David Roder, University of South Australia
  • Abdullahi Sheriff, GE Healthcare Europe
  • Francesco Pignatti, European Medicines Agency (observer role)

Independent contributors:

  • Miriam Gargesi, Illumina
  • Dipak Kalra, European Institute for Innovation through Health Data
  • Gregory Katz, University of Paris School of Medicine, PromTime
  • Steve Laws, Varian Medical Systems
  • Volker Liebenberg, Illumina
  • Laura O’Hanlon, Myriad Genetics

Project funding

HPP’s work on this project was commissioned by All.Can International. All.Can International is a not-for-profit organisation (ASBL) registered in Belgium. Its work is made possible with financial support from Bristol Myers Squibb (main sponsor), Roche (major sponsor), MSD and Johnson & Johnson (sponsors), Baxter and Illumina (contributors), with additional non-financial (in kind) support from Helpsy, The Health Value Alliance and Goings-On. In addition, this report received financial support from Novartis.

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