This post offers a unique role to work within the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre (NATCAN). NATCAN is a new national centre of excellence overseeing the 10 National Cancer Audits in England and Wales aiming to strengthen NHS cancer services by looking at treatments and patient outcomes across the NHS. NATCAN is the largest centre evaluating cancer services in the UK, with 30 staff members, employed at the RCS or the LSTHM, from a wide range of backgrounds (medicine, statistics, epidemiology, data science, quality improvement, project management).
The successful candidate will work in partnership with the Clinical Director of NATCAN, the Director of Operations and the NATCAN Executive team. The main roles will include the strategic mapping of current quality improvement initiatives in the UK across the nine cancers and all three main treatment modalities (surgery, radiotherapy and systemic therapy) which NATCAN evaluates, the evaluation and potential development of quality improvement methodologies that can be translated across the cancer audits as well as supporting the individual cancer audit teams with supporting the development and implementation of their individual quality improvement plans.
A particular focus will be on the four new cancers which have recently started (Kidney, Pancreatic, Ovarian and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) with close working with the existing breast, bowel, prostate, oesophago-gastric and lung cancer teams. The Audit uses very rich linked national datasets which include all newly diagnosed patients in the NHS in England and Wales and uses performance indicators to identify variation in the quality of care which forms the basis for quality improvement. An exciting innovation is that NATCAN will receive quarterly cancer data updates. This will reduce the time lag between patients receiving care and audit feedback to six months, which will inform quality improvement initiatives that aim “to close the audit cycle”.
You will work in a vibrant audit and research environment, putting you at the heart of a national team that plays a key role in improving the care that patients with cancer receive in England and Wales. It will provide you with the opportunity to contribute to high-profile peer-reviewed papers, which could lead to obtaining a PhD. The PhD research will aim to strengthen the relevance and robustness of the Audit’s outputs. It will study determinants of variation in practice and outcomes, develop methods for quality assessment, and evaluate the impact of quality improvement initiatives.
Responsibilities
- Analysing rich national linked cancer databases
- Working with professional bodies, royal colleges and senior national clinical leads to develop quality improvement initiatives
- Engaging with cancer alliances, integrated care boards and local Trusts to support implementation
- Reporting results of the NATCAN quality improvement initiatives in reports and papers for peer-reviewed publications
- Presenting findings at conferences.
- Liaising with professional bodies, charities and other stakeholders in order to publicise and support the work of NATCAN.
About you
We are looking for applicants with:
- Clinical experience in in a relevant discipline – Surgical/ Medical / Clinical Oncology
- Passed a Membership/ Fellowship exam of a relevant Royal College
- Experience in delivering quality improvement initiatives, locally, regionally or nationally.
- Good numeracy
- Excellent verbal and written communication
- Good organisational abilities
- Research experience is an advantage but further training in research methods and statistical analysis will be provided
Watch this video to find out more about the role of Clinical Fellow. Kate Walker, Professor & Audit Lead Methodologist, talks about the role and the opportunities it brings to the successful candidate on the basis of experience in National Bowel Cancer Audit.