Momentum: Cancer Control in Action

The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer hosted its first stakeholder forum, Momentum: Cancer Control in Action, July 7 to 8 in Toronto. As the Partnership enters the third year of our initial five-year mandate, the forum represents a key step in strengthening the momentum of the Partnership’s work in cancer control and its impact on Canadians.

About 150 stakeholders were in attendance, including clinicians, professional associations, patient groups, cancer agencies, health ministries, federal agencies and other national organizations.

Objectives

The goals of the forum were to:

• share the innovative and collaborative work currently being implemented and advanced in the key priority areas of the strategy
• showcase the breadth and depth of stakeholder involvement in Partnership initiatives and how these initiatives link with stakeholder priorities
• explore new collaborations that will bring value to our collective efforts in advancing Canada’s strategy for cancer control

Plenary and workshop presentations covered a range of initiatives, including the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project, synoptic surgery and pathology reporting, the recently launched portal Cancer View Canada, cancer and chronic disease prevention, screening for distress, assistance with navigation, cancer surveillance and staging, and many others. The Networking Marketplace provided participants with opportunities to interact directly with leaders who are implementing the initiatives and to network among colleagues in cancer control.

Looking forward

Forum speakers demonstrated clearly how the work being implemented across the country will improve cancer control for all Canadians. At the same time, as the Partnership explores post-forum next steps, feedback from participants throughout the forum – from plenary sessions and workshops, to the marketplace and discussions on shared priorities – is helping to identify further opportunities for collaboration and more ways to build on existing initiatives to achieve outcomes by 2012 and beyond.

Please contact Leanne Kitchen Clarke at the Partnership for more information or if you have questions about the forum.