Cancer Alliance Queensland
Cancer Alliance Queensland
Cancer Alliance Queensland brings together the Cancer Control Safety and Quality Partnership (The Partnership), Queensland Cancer Control Analysis Team (QCCAT) and the Queensland Cancer Register (QCR).
Together with the support of the Department of Health, Metro South Hospital and Health Service and in partnership with clinicians, health facilities (public and private) and external organisations, we support and promote clinician led improvement of cancer services in Queensland.
Our Strategic Plan is founded on our mission, vision, values and culture. To fulfil our mission and make progress toward our long term vision, we must focus on the activities and initiatives that will have the greatest impact on our culture and success. Six success factors have been identified as key to achieving our vision. These interrelated success factors provide the basis for our planned strategic initiatives.
The Partnership
The Partnership was established in 2004 with a single goal; clinician led service improvement. Our priority is to provide clinicians with clear process and outcome evaluations of cancer care so they can improve services. The Partnership is a gazetted quality assurance committee under section 82 of the Hospital and Health Boards Act (2011)(Gazetted 10 December 2004). This legislation allows The Partnership to access identifiable information and use it to better understand the safety and effectiveness of the cancer care delivered across Queensland.
Current Partnership Members
| Professor David E Theile AO | Chair - The Partnership |
Member since 2015 |
| Professor Joanne Aitken | Head of Research |
Member since 2005 |
| Dr Marie-Frances Burke | Medical Director |
Member since 2016 |
| Aniko Cooper | Director, Townsville Cancer Centre |
Member since 2016 |
| Professor Kwun Fong | Thoracic Physician, The Prince Charles Hospital |
Member since 2005 |
| Dr Hazel Harden | Consumer - The Partnership |
Member since 2019 |
| Adjunct Professor Liz Kenny AO | Senior Radiation Oncologist, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital |
Member since 2005 |
| Professor Keith McNeil | Assistant Deputy Director-General and Chief Clinical Information Officer |
Member since 2018 |
| Shoni Philpot | Senior Director, Queensland Cancer Control Analysis Team |
Member since 2005 |
| Professor Mark Smithers AM | Director, Upper GI & Soft Tissue Unit, Princess Alexandra Hospital |
Member since 2011 |
| Professor Euan Walpole | Medical Director, Cancer Services, Princess Alexandra Hospital |
Member since 2005 |
| Associate Professor David Wyld | Director, Medical Oncology, Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital |
Member since 2016 |
Find out more...
The Partnership Terms of Reference
The Partnership Privacy Policy
Quality Assurance Committee Guidelines
Other Quality Assurance Committees
The Partnership Sub-committees
The Cancer Alliance Queensland recognises that our clinicians are our strength. They understand the grassroots of health care delivery and assist us in making our analysis services clinically focused and useful in changing practices.
These Sub-committees are established under the auspices of The Partnership and membership includes representation from public and private sectors and urban, regional and remote areas of Queensland. The Sub-committee working groups are most commonly formed around clinical or cancer streams for example Breast cancer Sub-committee or Radiotherapy Sub-committee.
All Sub-committee members are formally invited by the Chair of the Partnership and are identified as relevant persons of the Partnership under sections 81 to 92 (Quality Assurance) of the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011. Relevant persons are required to sign a privacy and confidentiality statement and declare any conflict of interest.
There are currently 10 Sub-committees with more to come on board. If you are interested in joining a Sub-committee to meet with other clinicians and have a robust debate about how to improve outcomes then contact us.
Current Sub-committee working groups
| Colin Furnival | Chair, Breast Sub-committee | Chair (Member since 2011) |
| Ben Green | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2011) |
| Michelle Morris | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2011) |
| Margot Lehman | Radiation Oncologist | Member (Member since 2011) |
| Marion Strong | Breast Care Nurse | Member (Member since 2011) |
| Sunil Lakhani | Executive Director, Research | Member (Member since 2011) |
| Sally Meade | Surgeon, Townsville |
Member (Member since 2019) |
| Morgan Windsor | Cardiothoracic Surgeon | Clinical Lead (Member since 2013) |
| Margot Lehman | Radiation Oncologist | Member (Member since 2018) |
| Jasotha Sanmugarajah | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2018) |
| Geoff Coughlin | Chair, Urologist | Chair (Member since 2016) |
| Simon Wood | Director, Urology Department, PAH | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Kiran Hazratwala | Urologist | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Roger Watson | Urologist | Member (Member since 2016) |
| David Theile | Chair, Colorectal Sub-committee | Chair (Member since 2016) |
| Pieter Prinsloo | Staff Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| John Hansen | General & Colorectal Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| David Clark | General Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| David Taylor | Colorectal Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Nick Lutton | Colorectal Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Mark Doudle | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Mark Smithers | Director Upper GI, Soft Tissue Unit, PAH | Chair (Member since 2008) |
| Ratna Aseervatham | Director of Surgery | Member (Member since 2008) |
| John Avramovic | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Andrew Barbour | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Donald Cameron | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2008) |
| Ben Dodd | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Rob Finch | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2008) |
| Victor Liew | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Priscilla Martin | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Leigh Rutherford | Surgeon |
Member (Member since 2016) |
| Iain Thomson | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Jonathan Fawcett | Co-Chair PAH | Chair (Member since 2015) |
| Nicholas O'Rourke | Co-Chair RBWH | Chair (Member since 2015) |
| Andrew Barbour | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Peter Hodgkinson | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| David Cavallucci | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Richard Bryant | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Donald Cameron | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| John Avramovic | Laparoscopic and Upper GI Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Mark Smithers | Upper GI Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Euan Walpole | Medical Director, Cancer Services PAH | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Tom O'Rourke | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Stephen Lynch | Mater General Surgery HPB | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Ratna Aseervatham | Director of Surgery | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Priscilla Martin | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Katherine Wilson | Staff specialist | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Robert Finch | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Leigh Rutherford | Surgeon | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Bryan Burmeister | Chair, Radiation Oncology Sub-committee | Chair (Member since 2015) |
| Roger Allison | Radiation Oncologist | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Marie-Frances Burke | Radiation Oncologist | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Benjamin Chua | Radiation Oncologist | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Scott Cooper | Senior Radiation Therapist | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Jim Frantzis | Executive Manager Oncology Strategic Growth (ICON) | Member (Member since 2016) |
| Cathy Hargrave | Principal Research Fellow, Radiation | Member (Member since 2015) |
| David Pryor | Radiation Oncologist | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Lisa Roberts | Director, Cancer Blood & Palliative Service | Member (Member since 2015) |
| John Shakeshaft | Director, Therapeutic Physics | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Euan Walpole | Medical Director, Cancer Services PAH | Chair (Member since 2017) |
| John Bashford | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Christine Carrington | Pharmacist | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Melissa Eastgate | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Michelle Morris | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Leanne Stone | Director of Nursing | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Nicholas Weber | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Jeremy Wellwood | Haematologist | Member (Member since 2017) |
| David Wyld | Director, Medical Oncology, RBWH | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Rick Walker | Chair, Senior Medical Officer: Oncology |
Chair (Member since 2016) |
| Kirk Morris | Staff specialist: Haematology | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Melissa Jessop | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Po-Ling Inglis | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Suzanne Allan | Medical Oncologist | Member (Member since 2015) |
| Mark Smithers | Director Upper GI, Soft Tissue Unit, PAH | Chair (Member since 2017) |
| Adele Green | Deputy Director, QIMR | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Catherine Forristal | Project Officer, TRI (Mater) Member | Member (Member since 2017) |
| David Theile | The Partnership | Member (Member since 2017) |
| Sandro Porceddu | Radiation Oncologist |
Chair (Member since 2019) |
| Ben Panizza | Surgeon |
Member (Member since 2019) |
| Martin Batstone | Surgeon |
Member (Member since 2019) |
| Sam Dowthwaite | Surgeon |
Member (Member since 2019) |
| Liz Kenny | Senior Radiation Oncologist |
Member (Member since 2019) |
| Michael Collins | Radiation Oncologist |
Member (Member since 2019) |
| Brett Hughes | Medical Oncologist |
Member (Member since 2019) |
| Rahul Ladwa | Medical Oncologist |
Member (Member since 2019) |
| Raymond Chan | Cancer nursing |
Member (Member since 2019) |
QCCAT
Since its inception in 2004, QCCAT has led cutting-edge studies that evaluate cancer care delivery and outcomes. QCCAT have access to a vast and secure array of Queensland Public and Private health related data, including population-based cancer diagnosis, pathology and staging, treatment and death information and clinical and administrative data systems. QCCAT goes to great lengths to protect privacy and it is recognised as a national leader in data harvesting whilst maintaining the privacy and security of cancer information.
As well as our extensive database capabilities, QCCAT has also developed sophisticated tools to assist front line clinicians in the management of cancer patients. Information captured from these tools feed into our highly developed databases to further improve the analysis and reporting of cancers and cancer outcomes in Queensland.
Our team has statistical training, epidemiological backgrounds, software development, project management, health services research and clinician engagement expertise. The variety of skill sets ensure a multidisciplinary approach to collecting, analysing and reporting on cancer and cancer care. This approach is vital to shaping Queensland’s future cancer care.
QCR
The Queensland Cancer Register (QCR) operates under the Public Health Act (PHA) 2005 to receive information on cancer in Queensland. The QCR maintains a register of all cases of cancer diagnosed in Queensland since 1982 (excluding basal and squamous cell carcinomas). The QCR is one of the largest population based cancer registries in Australia and is a unique data resource bringing the most comprehensive set of cancer data elements together to provide an accurate picture of cancer in Queensland.
The Cancer Alliance Queensland on behalf of Metro South Hospital and Health Service manages the operation of the Register for the Queensland Department of Health.
To learn more about the QCR go to the Queensland Cancer Register page.