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Country/JA: iPAAC logo iPAAC
Action type: Policy recommendations

Problem: For comprehensive and quality-assured oncological care, all oncological patients must be given access to tumour-specific CCCN, in which healthcare providers with the necessary expertise work together. 

Objective: Tumour-specific Set of Standards (SoS) compile standards for the partners of these networks. These include, among other things, requirements for qualitative and quantitative expertise and for guideline-based processes and results. In addition, there are specifications for the governance and structure of the network as well as for the personnel and technical resources that must be provided.

Implementation status: Guidance for implementation of CCCNs, based on iPAAC WP10 work and results

Key Contextual Factors

  • SoS are guideline-based, tumour-specific standards for the treatment of oncological patients. The SoS are thus flexibly applicable in the health systems of the MS, at national, regional and local level (see also: One Pager WP 10 Quality indicators)
  • SoS can be used by clinicians and hospitals, among others, who want to establish tumour-specific CCCN. However, they can also be used at national level as a tool to organise oncological care and centralise it where necessary.

Key Components/Steps

  • Within WP 10 iPAAC Set of Standards for CCCN, colorectal cancer centres and pancreatic cancer centres have been developed.
  • The development of the SoS in the context of iPAAC was based on the longstanding experience and preliminary work of the participating institutions and Member States. The preliminary work was done in interdisciplinary and interprofessional commissions based on evidence-based guidelines and further developed by the interprofessional members of WP 10 for the CCCN setting. This procedure has proven to be very useful to be able to draw on sufficient professional expertise in the definition of SoS. SoS need to be created with tumour-specific expertise to successfully set up successful CCCNs. See also One Pager 10.5 Pilot sites.
  • These were piloted in two hospitals (Lower Silesian Oncology Centre, Wroclaw, Poland; Comprehensive Cancer Centre Charité, Berlin, Germany). See also: further one Pager WP 10 iPAAC below under references.
  • The external evaluation of the pilot projects has shown that the SoS can be successfully applied in different health systems for the implementation of CCCN.

Main Impacts / Added Value

  • Care of oncological patients always need cooperation of many disciplines and professional groups. These must have sufficient experience for the treatment of the corresponding tumour entity. The SoS for the establishment of CCCN summarise the requirements for all experts involved so that the above-mentioned prerequisites can be met.
  • The SoS support policy makers in establishing national quality-assured CCCN that combine care close to home, if possible, with centralised treatment, if necessary.
  • For clinicians', the the SoS is helpful in order to implement reliable networks, in which experts work together in a structured way and with this unnecessary diagnostic, time delays and wrong therapy decisions are avoided.
  • The SoS resp CCCN give patients the assurance that they will be treated by experts for their specific disease who will develop and implement the best possible treatment plan for them.

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