Zero Childhood Cancer Program

Background

ZERO is the most ambitious and comprehensive child cancer research program ever undertaken in Australia. The program demonstrates unprecedented collaboration, uniquely bringing together clinicians from child cancer treatment centres throughout Australia, together with leading national research partners to deliver Australia’s first ever personalised medicine program for children with high-risk or relapsed cancer (overall survival <30%). Additionally, the program has built a global alliance with international partners in the US and Europe.

Aims

The aims of this implementation science study are to:

1. Undertake implementation science-driven research to assess and report on barriers and facilitators to the integration of a precision medicine model of care into clinical settings;
2. Evaluate opportunities for a coordinated national implementation initiative that will be key to influence policy, translate and integrate new best practice and standard of care on a large scale.

Design and method

Using a mixed-method study design we will integrate findings from both quantitative and qualitative data capture activities, following in-depth analysis of each dataset, and the triangulation of datasets, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of Program processes and impact.

Publications

Rapport F., Clay-Williams R., Churruca K., Shih P., Hogden A. and Braithwaite J. The struggle of translating Science into Action: Foundational Concepts of Implementation Science. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. 24: 117-126. doi: 10.1111/jep.12741.

Braithwaite J, Marks D, Taylor N. Harnessing implementation science to improve care quality and patient safety: a systematic review of targeted literature. International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2014;26(3):321-29. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzu047

Braithwaite J, Churruca K, Long JC, et al. When complexity science meets implementation science: a theoretical and empirical analysis of systems change. 2018;16(1):63.

Smith S, Eatough V, Smith J, et al. 'I know I'm not invincible': An interpretative phenomenological analysis of thyroid cancer in young people. British journal of health psychology 2018;23(2):352-70. doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12292 [published Online First: 2018/01/23]