The Medical Research Future Fund has provided multi-year funding to the ReViTALISE project, a large body of work aimed at increasing access to clinical trials (CTs) in regional areas of Victoria, Australia. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Clinical Trial Access Initiative (‘the Initiative’) is one of the key components of ReViTALISE.
Aims:
The Initiative aims to improve access to cancer CTs for Aboriginal people in a defined area in regional Victoria, with a view to identifying strategies, activities and approaches that are potentially transferrable and scalable.
Methods and Progress to Date
The Initiative is working with a range of stakeholders including community members and organisations as well as health care providers. A Steering Committee has been established with strong Aboriginal membership including an Aboriginal Co-Chair, members from Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations and Aboriginal consumers, alongside non-Aboriginal health professionals and researchers. A literature review highlighted a range of critical factors and enabled identification and synthesis of potentially useful strategies to increase participation of Aboriginal people in CTs in a regional setting.
Study design has been guided by co-design principles, community consultation, an Environmental Scan of relevant activities, literature review and discussions with other ReViTALISE streams. Work is being undertaken in two main areas: 1) Yarning with community to understand knowledge of and perspectives about cancer CTs, followed by co-design of appropriate resources; and 2) co-designing and conducting an education campaign for cancer health professionals to improve their understanding of barriers to and facilitators of CT participation by Aboriginal people with cancer. The team aims to build strong relationships with consumers and community to inform and guide study design, implementation and dissemination. Identification of benefits that matter to community as a result of the work will be a key consideration.
Key learnings to date will be presented.