Patient travel distance for radiotherapy in Victoria

Published Joseph Green on

Monday Lunch Live

06 May 2024

Radiotherapy is a cornerstone of modern cancer care. In this webinar, A/Prof Richard Khor discusses the amount of travel that Victorian cancer patients undertake as part of radiotherapy care.

Estimating the burden of travel

It's well known that lower radiotherapy rates can result in poorer outcomes for patients. We also know that radiotherapy centres are costly to build and staff, limiting where they can be built. In our research agenda, we hope to see whether increasing travel distance is associated with any decrease in radiotherapy utilisation. Planned research will examine the financial and quality of life associations with increasing travel distance.

Chair

Mr Steve Medwell
Grampians Health Program Director of Cancer Services

Steve completed his Medical Radiations (Radiation Therapy) degree in 1989, and has since spent most of his career as a Radiation Therapist (RT), specialising in radiation therapy planning. Steve practised RT widely at several sites in Australia and overseas.

A/Prof Richard Khor

richard-khor
Radiation Oncologist, Austin Health

A/Prof Richard is a Consultant Radiation Oncologist at Austin Health in Melbourne. His doctorate thesis focused on large scale database linkages, health services and machine learning in Radiation Oncology. Having grown up in regional Queensland and previously working in regional Victoria, he has always had an interest in the specific issues that patients face when living outside metropolitan cities. He has published several papers regarding radiotherapy, how frequently radiotherapy is used for cancer patients, and the effect of travel distance on service utilisation. Currently, Richard is the lead clinician on the VCCC Value-Based Healthcare Program, project "Disparities in radiotherapy access in Victoria".

Colin Hornby

colin-hornby
Radiotherapy Advisor, Victorian Department of Health

Colin had over 35 years clinical experience as a Radiation Therapist at Peter Mac before moving from his Head of RT Planning Clinical Services role to become  Radiotherapy advisor to the Victorian Department of Health. He has held this position for the past 11 years. As part of this role, Colin has been involved in radiotherapy service planning for Victoria, including infrastructure provision, radiotherapy data collection, analysis and statewide radiotherapy services implementation.

Colin has contributed extensively to professional conference meetings as a speaker having delivered many presentations at national and international meetings. He has more than 25 publications in peer reviewed journals. He has also provided radiotherapy consulting services and dosimetry training in Australia and Asia. Colin is a fellow of the Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy, a member of the American Association of Medical dosimetrists and a reviewer for 3 peer-reviewed scientific journals. These activities are supported by his Master by research and post grad qualifications in teaching, business and music.

Keith Donohoe

Keith-Donohoe
Consumer Advocate

Keith is an active consumer advocate of improving the health consumer experience and outcomes. He achieves this, with a strategic focus, as a voice on governance, management, and working committees at the VCCC Alliance, Royal Melbourne Hospital and throughout the Parkville precinct. He brings a lived experience to this project as both a patient and a carer of radiotherapy cancer treatment.

Resource details

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Course type
Webinars
Duration
60 mins
Price
$0.00
Curriculum Area
Treatment (incl. Supportive Care)
Speciality
Clinician
Nurse
Early to mid career researcher
Senior researcher / scientist
Consumer / patient / carer
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