Work Package 4 – Integration in National Policies and Sustainability

Outputs and deliverables

Cancer Control Policy Interview Survey report

• Report of the iPAAC WP4 Cancer Control Policy Interview Survey (PDF file, 640 kB)

The iPAAC Work Package 4 (WP4), led by the Belgian Cancer Centre of Sciensano, has vis­ited 28 European countries in order to collect examples of innovative approaches for implementing cancer control policies (cancer control policy implementation survey). These examples of innovative implementation approaches will be shared in the final deliverable of the iPAAC JA final deliverable, the Roadmap, which has the objective to facilitate mutual learning and experience exchange among EU countries.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the aim to identify those initiatives that were considered of interest for sharing with other countries by the local stakeholders (i.e., health advisers, healthcare providers, scientists, civil society representatives and healthcare providers). Five domains were prioritized for the discussion: health promo­tion and prevention; cancer screening; diagnostics and treatment (innovative therapies); cancer care (including rehabilitation and end of life care) and cancer information sys­tems. During these discussions, planned and ongoing innovative cancer control initiatives and encountered challenges and the levers used while implementing these initiatives were identified.

The results of this exercise are described in the CCPIS report, which can be considered as a summary description of the discussions. The CCPIS Report provides an overview of the common and country specific implementation issues reported by Member States, the main organizations models in the six cancer control domains, and the innovative approaches and levers to overcome encountered implementation barriers. Importantly, the CCPIS does not present an evaluation; benchmarking or a state of play of cancer control policies among the EU countries. The report could represent the basis for the development of propositions for further cancer control actions on EU level.

Methodological report, interview guide; list of visited institutions

• Methodological paper (PDF file, 1.0 MB)
• Interview guide (PDF file, 710 kB)
• Visited institutions (PDF file, 900 kB)

The aim of the CCPIS was to explore the cancer control policy implementation experiences across European countries. Two specific objectives have therefore been identifed: (1) organize a mapping exercise of planned and ongoing innovative cancer control initiatives and (2) identify the challenges encountered and the levers used while implementing these initiatives.

To perform this study, a qualitative research design has to be used. The CCPIS process has been conducted in three phases: I) The preparatory phase, i.e. the development of the interview guide, desk research, and exploratory interviews; II) The data collection phase, conducting and reporting the semi-structured interviews, in the country-specific minutes and summaries; III) The ‘follow-up’ phase; performing the thematic analysis of the minutes using the Nvivo Software.

From September 2018 to January 2020, face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted in twenty-eight European countries, including non-EU MS (Norway, Denmark, Serbia and Moldova) and with the exclusion of Romania and Estonia, which were not successfully reached. During this timeframe, 226 respondents were interviewed, with an average of 9 respondents per country, ranging from one to a maximum of 32 respondents.

Roadmap: one-pagers

• List of one-pagers (XLSX file, 20 kB)
• Template for one-pager (DOCX file, 60 kB)
• Explanatory note on the preparation of a one-pager (PDF file, 200 kB)

Work package 4 main objective is to develop the final deliverable of the JA iPAAC, i.e. the Roadmap on Implementation and Sustainability in cancer control policy.

In consensus with iPAAC partners, it has been decided that this Roadmap will be a tool to encourage and facilitate mutual learning among EU MSs regarding the implementation of innovative cancer control policy. As most EU MSs already deal with cancer control since, at least, one decade (often much longer) and that they focus or priorities have been found to be slightly different, one could reasonably assume that the sharing of their experience can be beneficial.

The Roadmap will be on online repository, providing information regarding innovative cancer control approaches, identified from the iPAAC WP5-WP10 and from implementation experiences in 28 EU countries (CCPIS). This information is provided in the format of a “one-pager”, describing key implementation steps, barriers and lessons learned.

List of challenges

• Reported challenges (PDF file, 120 kB)

In addition to identifying the innovative implementation activi­ties themselves, the CCPIS also questioned on challenges encountered in establishing new actions. Indeed, many practical issues were raised concerning cancer control policy implementation. These challenges are listed in the WP4 working document iPAAC_WP4_CCPIS_list of challenges. Importantly, this list describes the perspective of the interviewees and not the coun­try position.

Interestingly, some challenges noted in some countries were motivating factors for de­veloping innovative approaches to overcome the difficulties in others; while for a series of challenges, no concrete solutions were reported. Thus, it is clear that bringing coun­tries together around specific challenges is of great value for knowledge exchange, mu­tual learning, and identifying further needs or help required to develop solutions.

Sustainability & implementation of cancer control actions in EU Member States: challenges and opportunities

• Open document (PDF file, 1.6 MB)

This report aims at describing the results of different joint actions and matching them with the challenges reported by EU countries during the Cancer control policy interview survey (CCPIS).

Guide: Practices and recommendations for the management of cognitive impairments after cancer

• Open document (PDF file, 5.4 MB)
• Annex 1 (PDF file, 950 kB)

This guide is published in the framework of the European iPAAC programme. It aims to illustrate the iPAAC methodology through a French case study. This study deals with a subject that is still not well known but important to tackle: cognitive impairments in adults after cancer treatment (excluding the central nervous system). 

The study is based on a methodology which led to a synthesis of both the scientific and grey literature. On the basis of this research, a synthesis is proposed of the most important themes to be taken into account by the public authorities with a view to improving the quality of life of patients after their treatment. It also aims to assess the importance of the socio-economic impact of cognitive impairments after cancer.

Meetings

• 1/10/2020 GB meeting, virtual
• 3/7/2020 GB meeting, virtual
• 9–10/10/2019, GB meeting, Barcelona
• 24/1/2019, GB meeting, Brussels
• 27/6/2018, GB meeting, Brussels

Activities

• Visits to EU countries
  Part I, Part II