The National Strategic Action Plan for Blood Cancer provides an evidence-based blueprint to coordinate and accelerate national efforts to improve survival and quality of life outcomes for people diagnosed with blood cancer and to support their carers and families.  

The National Action Plan is the result of the State of the Nation: Blood Cancer in Australia report developed by the Leukaemia Foundation and members of the blood cancer community. The report was a first of its kind analysis that identified the challenges and opportunities influencing survival and quality of life for people living with blood cancer in Australia.  

With the support of the Federal Government, the National Action Plan sets out priorities and actions for addressing the challenges of blood cancer to achieve the overall vision of zero lives lost to blood cancer by 2035.  

Through collaboration with patients and leaders in the blood cancer community, the National Action Plan identifies four significant priorities to improve outcomes for people living with blood cancer and their families; these are:  

• Empower Patients and their Families  
• Achieve Best Practice  
• Accelerate Research 
• Enable Access to Novel and Specialised Therapies. 

These priority areas are interconnected, and coordinated action will often be required across two or more priority areas to maximise impact. 

Next steps  

We are excited about planning the launch of the National Action Plan in September 2020. 

See our journey so far.

Cancer Concierge is our how we open our door to people living with blood cancer so they can access relevant and personalised services to meet individual needs and circumstances.  

Cancer Concierge brings together three years of work in understanding stakeholder needs and aspirations giving us a framework which improves our interactions with more meaningful engagement with PLWBC. This approach will broaden our relevance so we have the capacity to reach more Australians living with blood cancer. It is a sustainable and agile framework enabling us to learn and respond to future needs. As a result, the professional competency of our people will also grow to enable us to deliver these needs.  

It brings together all our traditional service offerings such as accommodation and emotional support with our digitally transformed offering such as online information and support programs to achieve an improved interaction with more Australians living with blood cancer. 

We know through our current model of care that we are only relevant to one third of Australians living with blood cancer. 

This new framework transforms our thinking to design a new offering which is personalised and insights-driven through extensive data capture.  

The success of this framework will be the positive impact it has on the lives of people living with blood cancer. This will be understood through our stakeholder loyalty indicator framework and the increase of interactions across all our offline and online services.   

We need the experience for people living with blood cancer to be an effortless, seamless and enlightening interaction which meets unmet needs identified in our 2017 Stakeholder Discovery Research which identified service gaps and new value opportunities.  

Cancer Concierge will curate trusted information and offer critical services through one patient management care model regardless of how a person with blood cancer accesses our services–face-to-face or digitally. 

Next steps 

Designing a new model of care which responds to the needs of more people living with blood cancer wherever they live in Australia and whatever stage of their blood cancer journey.  

Our model of support services is changing.  Digital transformation is a vital component in the delivery and implementation of Cancer Concierge.  

People living with blood cancer have told us beyond a service that provides a practical face-to-face service with them; they need a trusted information source. They need information that will aid their navigation of blood cancer and empower them to make decisions about their treatment and supportive care confidently.  The digital support program is a data-driven platform which will transform how we interact with people living with blood cancer. The concept was tested through a pilot program in a telehealth model with chronic patients and critiqued as a unique offering for all people with blood cancer, which demonstrated real impact on Quality of Life scores.

We know through our current model of services; we are only relevant to one–third of Australians living with blood cancer. We must transform our thinking and build the digital capacity and infrastructure to deliver services which allow greater scale, connection and relevancy to people living with blood cancer.    

Bringing health information to life on digital platforms such as internet platforms, social media, and mobile devices is critical in ensuring people living with blood cancer have access to trusted, relevant, and current knowledge and information. A digital offering encourages autonomy for those who want to seek their own support structures.   

This new service will be an insights-driven digital experience where patients can interact with a secure and safe application which guides, personalises and connects them with the latest resources and services.    

Next steps  

The Leukaemia Foundation will deliver a digital transformation of its service delivery in December 2020. This will be a phased approach over three years. In our first year, we will determine the best technology to use and how to implement it with possible intellectual property and business opportunities, including potential partnerships with leading MedTech and data bank companies. We will embed a model to test, learn, develop and grow. 

Right now, Australia boasts many of the world’s sharpest minds in blood cancer research.

We have a long history committed to research that has seen more than $50 million invested into game-changing projects, boosting the academic and research potential of senior haematologists and blood cancer researchers across Australia.

However, while Australians are still being diagnosed with blood cancer, while treatment continues to create unwanted side effects and while families are still losing loved ones, our work must go on.

Our research priorities are to:

Amplify Australia’s blood cancer research capability through Leukaemia Foundation PhD Scholarships  

Our determination to nurture this country’s up-and-coming blood cancer brains trust has seen the rise of promising junior scientists and clinicians through our PhD program and mid-career researchers through Cancer Australia partnerships.

Invest in cutting-edge blood cancer projects  

We are focused on investment into projects spanning the entire blood cancer spectrum, with emphasis on prevention and detection, through to treatment planning, management of chronic disease and survivorship support.

Expedite new drugs and therapies to market through clinical trials 

Advances in blood cancer research allow us to see a future where the standard of care is precision medicine – delivering targeted treatments with greater benefit and fewer adverse effects.

Get more information about research.