The summer months were a busy period for the Coordinating Centre as we focused our efforts on the renewal of 3CTN for the next phase. The team developed a Strategic Plan for the period 2018-2022 which has been sent to our funders and key stakeholders. Dr. Janet Dancey, 3CTN Scientific Director shares, “The Strategic Plan was constructed after carefully reviewing 3CTN’s internal and external processes and activities, and a series of meetings and surveys were conducted across stakeholder groups to determine successes, new priorities and key deliverables.”
The key priorities for 2018-2022 are:
To improve patient access to trials that will improve recruitment to the 3CTN Portfolio of trials to 75 per cent above the pre-3CTN baseline.
To enhance Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) across all sites by providing incentives and assistance to sites for the development and implementation of PPI strategies.
To improve trial performance by focusing on improving trial initiation timelines, recruitment projections and quality initiatives.
To optimize the 3CTN trial Portfolio to create opportunities for new trials and demonstrate its impact.
Final Report from the Scientific Advisory Board
Following the face-to-face portion of 3CTN’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) 36-month review meeting in June 2017, the SAB issued a report to 3CTN. In summary, the SAB comments and recommendations are as follows:
3CTN should be celebrated as a Canadian success to date and confident of further progress in Year 4;
Develop a strategy for the identification of leaders or champions across Canada and across disciplines;
3CTN should continue its efforts to ensure it is inclusive of as many provinces, regions and populations as possible, and further increase the partnership between patients and professionals;
Continue to innovate both in the context of the research portfolio and its approach to the support of clinical cancer research.
Recruitment Progress: Year 4, Quarter 1
The Coordinating Centre is pleased to share that year 4 patient recruitment is off to a strong start with quarter 1 Network site performance at 43 per cent against baseline. The Network is now in its final year of its four-year mandate. This is likely to be the first of many success stories to be shared.
The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) lauded the 3CTN’s efforts to promote and encourage sites to incorporate Patient and Public Involvement (PPI). However, the Board members also suggest that more work needs to be done. As of the March 31, 2017, only 22 per cent of sites have implemented a PPI strategy – thus, in the new 3CTN Strategic Plan for 2018-2022, PPI is identified as a priority objective with the target that that all 3CTN sites implement a PPI strategy within the next four years. Don’t know where to begin? Review the PPI toolkit for Network sites and the 3CTN Guide to PPI. Additional support will be forthcoming.
PPI Implementation Tip
Once you have a well-written Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) job description, the next step is to match the requirements of the committee or project with the interests and background of the lay representative. Post the job advertisement on your organization’s website and promote it using social media or word-of-mouth. Former patients and research participants may be interested in participating as a lay representative. Ask your local Patient and Family Advisory Committee for assistance. For more details, see 3CTN Guide to PPI, page 27.
EDGE Tips
We provide some tips for EDGE for users and potential sites that would like more information.
Delegation Log Request: a new functionality was developed to reduce the burden of paper delegation.The delegation log was recently added to EDGE. The functionality allows users to easily add personnel responsibilities, which are then approved electronically by both the staff member and the respective Principal Investigator. This new functionality reduces the burden of the current paper delegation log and is a good option for trials that do not come with an electronic delegation log.
The Network Pulse Newsletter features site job opportunities. Please email info@3ctn.ca if you would like your posting to be featured in our next newsletter.
Key Dates:
October 27, 2017: Annual Stakeholder Meeting
November 15, 2017: Reports due for Year 4, Quarter 2
From all of us at 3CTN
Contact Us
For inquiries please contact: info@3ctn.ca or call 1-866-678-6427
Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network, MaRS Centre, 661 University Ave,
Suite 510 Toronto, Ontario Canada M5G 0A3
