Cancer care is not a ‘one-size fits all’ model and should consider individual circumstances, needs and diverse backgrounds to develop tailored, personalised care plans. Changes in the cancer care and broader health system have resulted in the emergence of new, person-centred models of treatment and care. These changes include increased specialisation and personalisation of cancer treatment, increased cancer survival rates, growth in multi- and inter-disciplinary care, shift towards primary and community-based care, and greater integration of social and community services.

New models of treatment and care are essential to ensuring the continual improvement of services and outcomes. Cancer treatment and care is provided across multiple settings (primary, tertiary, community, private and public) and disciplines and current funding models may not support integrated care across the continuum. The review of the National Health Reform Agreement 2020–2025[135] provides an opportunity to consider funding model innovation.

This action will implement innovative, evidence-based and cost-effective models of care for people living with and beyond cancer to establish a nationally consistent, sustainable, and evidence-based approach.

This 2-year action considers innovative, evidence-based models for the following:

• New clinical models of treatment: new and emerging models and technologies to advance care planning, diagnostic and treatment should be tested and routinely integrated into clinical care to ensure continual system improvement. These could include personalised medicine, Artificial Intelligence (AI), genomic testing, precision medicine, and immunotherapy
• Survivorship: current provision of survivorship care in Australia is highly fragmented, with considerable variation between institutions and across jurisdictions. Existing models are highly resource intensive, costly and have limited capacity. As more people are living longer with, and beyond cancer, new models of care are required to reduce risk of recurrence or to manage chronic disease and longer-term impacts of cancer treatment. New funding models to support better access to survivorship care across diverse care settings may also be required
• Supportive care: new integrated models of care should consider a person-centred, holistic, and evidence-based approach to meet the physical, psychological, emotional, and financial needs for patients, carers, and families to improve their quality of life
• Palliative care: with the limited coordinated investment into end-of-life care and shortage of palliative care specialists, new models of care are required to improve the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with a life-threatening illness. Models could consider prevention and relief of suffering through early identification, assessment and treatment of pain and other physical, psychosocial, and spiritual challenges.

Local providers and jurisdictions will be supported to implement innovative, evidence-based and cost-effective models of care, with national coordination. Regardless of the step within the cancer care continuum, models of care may include:

• nurse-led models of care that enable nursing staff to undertake assessment, provide education and information, administer care and treatment to ensure the continuity of care
• shared care that combines cancer specialists, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, primary care and allied health providers, including the integration of psychological services, chronic pain management and physiotherapy
• virtual and telehealth-based care, including the use of digital and internet-based support and follow-up care
• multidisciplinary care teams
• new clinical models that incorporate precision and personalised medicine and the use of AI and genomics into cancer treatment approaches
• community-led survivorship and end-of-life care models that seek to improve quality of life, experiences and functional outcomes and reduce cost to consumers and their carers and families.

Successful implementation of this action will enhance accessibility of person-centred, contemporary models of care aligned to OCPs and contribute to a robust sustainable cancer control sector that empowers consumers and their carers and families and improves patient outcomes for people living with and beyond cancer.

Effective models of cancer treatment, care and support should be co-designed with priority populations to ensure they meet the diverse needs and preferences of different consumers.

The innovative models of care should be evidence-based to enable safe, effective, and best practice models of care and align to the OCPs. This action could align to Action 4.5.1 Design and embed patient reported experience and patient reported outcomes into national performance monitoring and reporting for all providers, to assess services for all population groups and establish an evidence base.