What We’re Working On
All.Can
With the growing burden of cancer and financial pressures on our health care systems, there is an urgent need to improve the efficiency in cancer care. Improving efficiency is not a question of linear cost-cutting – but of finding ways to allocate resources more efficiently to achieve better outcomes for patients. This will require tough decisions, and thinking in terms of long-term investments rather than short-term policy fixes.
As a member of All.Can, Save Your Skin Foundation is working in this area, adding Canadian perspective to this global project. For more information please visit the All.Can website, and read more about the All.Can Canada initiative.
Report Back from Value Based Health Care Summit
This one-day Summit was hosted in Toronto by CADTH, CIHI, Amgen, Canada Infoway and Rotman School of Management. It brought together 125 attendees from a number of stakeholder groups to discuss the concept of Value Based Health Care (VBHC) as described in the Porter/Teisberg book “Redefining Health Care “. To read the event report, please click here: Report Back from Value Based Health Care Summit March 19, 2018
The Drug Pricing Policy Summit Patient Organizations Working Group has launched a virtual book club to be held via GoToMeeting on a monthly basis. Each book club meeting would last about 90 minutes and participants would receive key questions to consider for discussion as we make our way through the book. There is no cost to join.
The first book the club will read together is Redefining Health Care by Michael Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg. This book lays the foundation for a new approach to health system transformation, called Value-Based Health Care (VBHC). To register, please email DPPSWorkingGroups@gmail.com with your name, position (including volunteers) and patient organization affiliation.
BioCanRx Cancer Stakeholder Alliance Learning Institute
Click below to read the public document written by the participants of the 2017 BioCanRx -Cancer Stakeholder Alliance Learning Institute that was held at the 2017 Summit for Cancer Immunotherapy (Summit4CI) from June 25 to June 28, in Gatineau, Quebec. Louise Binder was one of these participants.
2017 Community Dissemination Report
This report serves to share the key research take-away messages presented at the Summit 4CI as well as the group reflections of The Learning Institute with the oncology patient and researcher community, BioCanRx, the Cancer Stakeholder Alliance, and the general public.
Melanoma Patient Survey for World Mental Health Day
February, 2018: Click here to read the report and view the resulting poster from the Save Your Skin Foundation survey which discusses various aspects of the impact a melanoma diagnosis has on the mental health of patients and their caregivers.
Stay tuned for our continued work in this field.
Government Relations
Save Your Skin Foundation has developed an established government relations approach that includes open communication and consultation between policy makers and leaders within the Foundation. We contribute to policy discussions and work towards consistent and effective implementation of procedures and protocols that put the patient first. Click here to read more on our page “Health Policy Resources”.
International Advocacy for Patient Access to Treatment
Advocates across the world are working with those who make decisions about healthcare to ensure that the patients they serve have access to appropriate care. Kathy Barnard of Save Your Skin in Canada knows first-hand how access can transform a patient’s chances. With Canada’s fragmented healthcare system, Kathy has been spearheading submissions to the assessment authorities and believes the next step is to work internationally to share learnings, approaches and evidence globally. Click here to read and download the booklet and resources: A³ ~ ADVOCACY: ACCESS IN ACTION
Patient value: Perspectives from the advocacy community
Patient advocates have an important role to play here as they are aware of and can express many viewpoints of the patients they represent. In this paper, a group of patient advocates representing many thousands of patients from around the world explore the following:
- The varying definitions of patient value
- Value from the patient perspective
- Why and how decision‐makers should incorporate patient value in frameworks and guidelines
- How the advocacy community can work together to ensure that the concept of patient value is included in current and future value frameworks.
Please click here to read the full paper titled Patient Value: Perspectives from the advocacy community
Collective Oncology Network for Exchange, Cancer Care Innovation, Treatment Access and Education
In 2015, Save Your Skin Foundation invited a group of leaders in patient advocacy to discuss the need for a network focused on Immuno-oncologies and dedicated to ensuring access to these important therapies for cancer patients in Canada. Since then, CONECTed, a collective of patient advocates, has been dedicated to raising awareness of the needs of cancer patients through a unified and cohesive patient voice and has been involved in addressing issues within the system, at the government level and in HTA both related to immuno-oncology and other therapies. Click here to read more about the work being done by CONECTed
together we can make a difference
Making awareness and education available is crucial. Since 2006, the Foundation has worked to raise awareness of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers focusing on education, prevention and the need for improved patient care.
