News

07/2024 CraNE 4th WP6 Meeting

CraNE 4th WP6 Meeting

At the fourth Work Package 6 meeting on 1-2 July 2024 at the National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene – National Research Institute (Warsaw, Poland), DKG presented the results of the Work Package 6 „Organisation of comprehensive, high-quality cancer care in Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks (CCCN)“ together with the project partners. For the past 2 years, the DKG has had the pleasure of leading the Work Package 6 of the Joint Action CraNE.

What did we talk about? We discussed the updated definition of Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks (CCCNs) and requirements for the interfaces between CCCN and Comprehensive Cancer Centres (CCC) with a total of 50 participants from 19 European member states.

The CCCN training handbook, which is intended to support future CCCNs in setting up quality-assured oncological care structures as well as the Lung Cancer Patient Pathway Template and the Patient Centredness Toolbox developed by our colleagues from the Technial University of Dresden (Research Group Digital Health) were presented.

A highlight of the meeting was the awarding of certificates to the two pilot centres that successfully implemented a Lung Cancer CCCN during the course of the project.

Congratulations to both CCCNs for the outstanding achievement of implementing the Set of Standards at such a high level in such a short time!

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all participants and CraNE partners for the last two years of collaboration. It has been a pleasure to work with you on the further development the tumour-specific CCCNs!

We are very pleased that the work of Work Package 6 Joint Action CraNE will continue in Joint Action EUnetCCC Work Package 9.

Stay tuned 😊

06/2024 Successful Audit for the Lung Cancer CCCN at the Lower Silesian Oncology, Pulmonology and Hematology Center

Setting up Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks (CCCNs) – Successful Audit for the Lung Cancer CCCN at the  Lower Silesian Oncology, Pulmonology and Hematology Center (Wroclaw, Poland)

We are thrilled to share that the Lung Cancer CCCN Team of the Lower Silesian Oncology, Pulmonology and Hematology Center (LSOPHC), one of our WP6 pilot CCCNs passed the audit which took place from 27.-28. Mai 2024 in Wroclaw, Poland successfully.

The two experienced lung cancer auditors congratulated the CCCN on an excellent and high performance and recommended that the LSOPHC should be awarded with the CraNE CCCN Lung Cancer certificate.

During the 1.5-day audit the implementation of the requirements in the Set of Standards for Lung Cancer as well as the results of the set of quality indicators were reviewed and jointly discussed.

All documents (filled-in Set of Standards, Set of QIs and Audit Report) will be forwarded to the Certificate Awarding Committee which will review the certification process and ultimately take the decision if the certificate will be awarded.

The certificate awarding ceremony will take on 1 July in the scope of the 4^th WP6 meeting in Warsaw at the National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene- National Research Institute.

Audit and LSOPHC team © LSOPHC

05/2024 DKG attends annual meeting of the Digital Health research group at TU Dresden

DKG attends annual meeting of the Digital Health research group at TU Dresden

The annual meeting of the Digital Health research group at TU Dresden took place on 29 May 2024. The Digital Health research group is a long-standing project partner of the DKG, with whom we are jointly implementing European projects for quality-assured cancer care.

As part of the annual meeting, the Digital Health research group presented its various projects at national and international level. There were exciting insights into the current status of digital healthcare and its networking at national level. At international level, the CraNE and CCI4EU projects funded by the European Commission were presented. Here, the Digital Health research group and the DKG are working closely together in both European projects, e.g. in the implementation of digital patient pathways in CCCNs (JA CraNE) and the development of a Maturity Model for potential CCIs (CSA CCI4EU).

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Digital Health research group for the many years of successful partnership.
We look forward to future projects with them.

05/2024 New Joint Action EUnetCCC

New Joint Action EUnetCCC

• CCCN Implementation: As a continuation of the work on CCCNs in JA CanCon, JA iPAAC and JA CraNE support the establishment of CCCNs in all European Member States, with a focus on enhancing care quality, accessibility, cooperation and interfaces with regional/national CCCs, EUNetCCC and other stakeholders in the cancer ecosystem,
• Advance high-quality Care Standards: Updating and further development of (tumour specific) Set of Standards, Quality Indicators as well as developing a patient pathway repository and structured data documentation processes for quality indicators,
• Capacity Building and Training: Further develop and implementation of support tools and training instruments to facilitate and assist the setup of quality-assured CCCNs,
• Feasibility Testing and Certification: Setting up quality assured CCCNs in up to 6 pilot CCCNs by implementing the developed tools and instruments as well a feasibility testing of the CCCN certification framework in alignment with WP5,
• Sustainability Recommendations: Develop recommendations for the sustainable expansion and implementation of CCCNs, integrated into a broader sustainability roadmap in collaboration with Work Package 4.

04/2024 CCI4EU Survey is out

CCI4EU Survey is out

The CCI4EU Survey of the CCI4EU project has official launched in April 2024. The objective of this action is to map existing collaboration across Europe on integrating cancer research with care, education, and training on 8 themes and perform Capacity Building Interventions to strengthen it.

From the 15^th April to 31st of May 2024 potential CCIs, who were identified by the colleagues Work Package 3 Sciensano “Mapping of the current status and criteria of CCIs in EU Member States / regions and clustering”, are invited to answer the first CCI4EU survey. The process of the survey is illustrated in the figure below.

© CSA CCI4EU

Respondents completing (part of) this survey until 31st May 2024 will be eligible for CCI4EU Capacity Building Interventions. Capacity Building means a series of interventions tailored to the context which will enable the CCI to perform in a more effective and integrated way in the domains of research and innovation, in such a way that the diagnosis, treatment and care of cancer patients is optimised.

03/2024 JA CraNE Local Stakeholder Forum in Germany

JA CraNE Local Stakeholder Forum in Germany

The German Local Stakeholder Forum of the JA CraNE was held in Berlin on 21 February 2024, within the framework of the 36th German Cancer Congress.

The session „Tackling challenges in cancer care and improving its governance in the European Union – working towards high quality of cancer care in all Member States“, moderated by Dr. Antonius Helou (Federal Ministry of Health) and PD Dr. Simone Wesselmann (German Cancer Society), aimed to present on going European initiatives to support the fight against cancer addressing high quality of cancer care and bridging the gap between care and research.

A more detailed report can be downloaded here

02/2024 CSA CCI4EU 3rd WP2 Meeting

As part of the European Mission on Cancer funded project Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures for Europe (CCI4EU), the third Work Package 2 meeting took place at the DKG office from 15-16 February. The Cancer Mission Board describes CCIs as national or regional infrastructures that provide resources and services to support, improve and integrate cancer care, research, training of nurses and education for cancer patients, survivors and families. During the Work Package 2 meeting, the 53 participants, representing 23 organisations from 13 countries, discussed and agreed on the concept, structure and development of a Maturity Model to map the implementation levels and further development of CCIs.

DKG is leading the Work Package 2 together with colleagues from Karolinska CCC. The two days were filled with exciting discussions and we look forward to further cooperation in this important project to improve oncological care and research structures in Europe. Further information can be found at www.cci4eu.eu

Group Picture of the CCI4EU WP2 members (© DKG)

01/2024 New audit documents

The auditing documents for 2024 including an updated Catalogue of Requirements and Data Sheet are now available for download on the website. In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us under info@ecc-cert.org

12/23 3rd CraNE WP6 Meeting

3rd CraNE WP6 Meeting

On 28 November the third WP6 meeting took place in the National Cancer Institute (INC) in Luxembourg. 50 participants from 37 organizations were attending including guests from the JRC and DG Sante and DG RTD. During the meeting the results of the five tasks were presented, discussed and agreed as well as the preparations for the following activities were initiated.

In particular, the first draft version of the handbook of how to set-up a quality assured CCCN received high interest from the participants. So did the final Set of Quality Indicator for Lung Cancer Care as well as the update on the development of a Lung Cancer Patient Pathway with a focus on patient-centeredness in CCCNs. In addition, we were pleased to receive a detailed update from the two pilot centres of the Lower Silesian Oncology Centre (Wroclaw, Poland) and the Lung Cancer Network (Luxembourg), which are implementing a CCCN for Lung Cancer. Last but not least the Antwerp University Hospital (UZA) presented their first preliminary results on the feasibility study to analyse guideline adherence with the help of automatic collection of guideline-based Quality Indicators on the example of Pancreatic Cancer. The Set of Quality Indicator for Pancreatic Cancer developed in the Joint Action iPAAC are the foundation of this pilot.

We are looking very much forward to continue the great collaboration within WP6. The next WP6 meeting will take place on 01-02 July 2024 and will be hosted by National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene- National Research Institute (NIZP PZH-PIB), Warsaw, Poland.

11/23 The CCI4EU website is out!

The CCI4EU website is out!

The website for the CCI4EU is now online. Here you will find all relevant information about the CCI4EU, the different work packages and the next steps. CCI4EU is a European initiative aiming to help Member States and Associated Countries to rethink the cancer culture by funding a more equitable transfer of knowledge to everyone.

Link to CCI4EU Website