It has been a huge night for teams from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre with two projects led by Peter Mac being recognised with 2022 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards.

2022 Victorian Public Healthcare Award winners

The Peter Mac Pharmacy team took out the ‘Safer Care Victoria award for quality and safety improvement’ for a project that used pharmacogenetics to provide safer chemotherapy care for patients while the iCanEAT project, led by the Nutrition team, won the ‘Safer Care Victoria partnering in healthcare’ award.

Peter Mac Chief Executive, Professor Shelley Dolan, said it was fantastic to see the work of Peter Mac staff acknowledged at this year’s awards.

“It’s just amazing to have the two shortlisted Peter Mac projects take home prizes at this year’s Victorian Public Healthcare Awards,” Shelley said. “Congratulations to our Pharmacy team and our Nutrition team for their success.”

“Given all that healthcare professionals have been through over the past two years, tonight has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the brilliant work of Victorian healthcare workers.”

Pharmacist-led pharmacogenetics program for safer chemotherapy

The Pharmacogenetics project led by Peter Mac Pharmacy team members focused on improving the safety of patients treated with the fluoropyrimidine (FP) class of chemotherapy agents. These are commonly prescribed to patients with gastrointestinal cancers and other solid tumours.

The trial, believed to be the first of its type in Australia, introduced the routine screening of patients to identify deficiencies linked to the DPYD gene. This has been associated with rare, but serious, complications for chemotherapy patients including ICU admission and even death.

Pharmacogenetics is the study of how genetic factors affect a patient’s reaction to a drug.

The program was initially implemented as a clinical trial and has now been adopted into routine care models at both Peter Mac and Bendigo Health.

iCanEAT: implementation of the iCanEAT pathway for people with cancer, carers and health professionals

Good nutrition is essential for all people with cancer but three in five patients have symptoms that impact their eating.

The iCanEAT project saw staff from Peter Mac work with colleagues across six other healthcare providers, co-designing resources that improved access to information about the best nutrition for cancer patients.

This ‘CanEAT pathway’ provides a guide for optimal cancer nutrition care, including resources and practical tips to help patients, carers and health professionals.

Through partnerships with consumer advocates, a range of multidisciplinary health professionals, and in many health settings, the iCanEAT project added 46 new resources to make the CanEAT pathway more useable and interactive. This improved the uptake of the pathway by almost 700%.