Knowledge Management
The Partnership is providing access to specialized tools, technology, connections and resources to support collaboration across jurisdictions and evidence-informed decision-making.
Desired outcomes by 2017:
- Cancerview.ca will become the go-to hub for information, tools and virtual collaboration for practitioners and professionals, as well as for people affected by cancer
- New capacity will be created to support analysis and use of evidence
- Innovative resources will be used to estimate long-term impacts of policy and program change on cancer, including economic effects, and to evaluate the impact of a co-ordinated approach
- Stakeholders will be able to use evidence in practice through knowledge synthesis, resources and toolkits for action
- Adoption strategies will be co-ordinated by reusing tools, knowledge and experience
Approach
Accelerating the uptake and translation of the best evidence and knowledge into practice is central to the Partnership’s mandate. By providing access to specialized tools and resources, the Partnership actively supports collaboration across jurisdictions as well as evidence-informed decision-making at the clinical, management and policy levels. Some examples, described below, are cancerview.ca, the fostering of a network of guidelines experts, standardized stage data capture and the Cancer Risk Management Model.
Access to comprehensive resources to inform and better align actions means that those working in or affected by cancer have the necessary tools to make the most appropriate decisions. Prior to the creation of the Partnership, this meant searching for trusted information and tools from myriad sources, a process that takes time and energy.
Cancerview.ca is a knowledge hub and online community that offers trusted, evidence-based content from more than 30 partner organizations in Canada. It also offers a wide array of tools and resources developed by the Partnership. The site allows professionals working in cancer control, as well as patients and families, to gain timely access to reliable information and decision aids. The tool also offers a platform for virtual collaboration and allows experts and colleagues from across Canada to easily connect and work together regardless of location.
Ensuring the availability and synthesis of evidence is fundamental to supporting collective actions in cancer control; so is systematically assessing the application of evidence and the capacity to support development and implementation of guidelines. Continuing to support training programs and networks of experts and expanding capacity, tools and resources will ensure that up-to-date evidence about cancer control is readily accessible and that it will be put to use.
Given the importance of data and analytic know-how to cancer surveillance and the measurement of progress in cancer control, supporting analytic capacity and filling key data gaps is an ongoing focus. This work includes:
- Continuing to connect those responsible for data analysis
- Providing opportunities to share expertise and methods
- Leveraging existing data sources
- Identifying new areas for targeted investment for data collection and retrieval
Often, new evidence or shifts in cancer control policy impact the broader system. The Cancer Risk Management Model platform, accessible from cancerview.ca, is a key tool to support ongoing system improvement and to assess these impacts. This modelling tool can be used to project the health and economic outcomes of various interventions. Decision-makers and policy-makers can use the outputs that the model generates to examine specific questions — for example, how key cancer control initiatives would play out in practice, including the effect on the number of cancers, mortality rates by cancer site, life expectancy, deaths averted and health-adjusted life expectancy. The Partnership will also use the tool to guide its strategy and to assess the economic impact of its initiatives.
Initiatives:
- Cancerview.ca (priority initiative)
- Cancer Risk Management Modelling
- Knowledge Transfer and Adoption
- Analytic Capacity Building
- Evidence, Synthesis and Guidelines
Find out more about the initiatives supporting this strategic priority in the Partnership’s 2012-2017 business plan.
