CancerCare Manitoba is the provincially legislated provider of cancer services in Manitoba, and is responsible for cancer prevention, detection, care, research and education on behalf of the people of Manitoba. As a centre of choice, we provide a broad spectrum of excellent cancer care, from enhancing quality of life for adults and children living with cancer and blood disorders, to improving cancer control for all Manitobans. As experts in radiology, CCMB is also tasked with monitoring and reducing radiation in Manitoba.

As Manitoba's population ages, the number of cancer cases is expected to rise by as much as 50 percent in the next two decades. A suspicion of cancer or diagnosis can impact the entire health care system, as it takes a complex health care team to diagnosis and manage the disease. Many cancer patients proceed along a difficult journey, requiring tests, treatments, possibly surgery and support services, often at different facilities.

CCMB, along with its partners, is working to decrease the impact of cancer by working to prevent the disease, by detecting it sooner, and by treating it more effectively. To do so today and into the future, we have created a plan based on five strategic priorities that will improve cancer care in Manitoba.

Here is an overview:

Prevention

We will enhance efforts aimed at reducing the incidence of cancer.

Primary prevention means preventing cancer before it develops, or eliminating exposure to risk factors, and by increasing healthy or 'protective' lifestyles and practices.

Risk factors increase the chance of developing cancer. These include age, heredity, exposure to carcinogens, certain lifestyle behaviours and some infectious agents. While some risk factors like age, gender and heredity can't be changed, the incidence of new cancer cases can be significantly reduced by promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing risk factors, through public outreach and education.

Our plans moving forward:

We will work to raise awareness of the impact of lifestyle choices and multiple risk factors on the incidence of cancer. A new Cancer Prevention Program will inform and educate Manitobans about cancer prevention strategies such as healthy eating, smoking cessation, and sun safety. We will track our results to target where information and education are most needed.

Access

We will ensure timely access to cancer services for all Manitobans.

To deliver quality cancer care, services have to be both available and accessible. Accessible care means that appropriate cancer services are available to all those who need them, at the time that they're needed, to maximum benefit. Special attention and support must be made to ensure access is available and understood by vulnerable populations, new immigrants to Canada, and harder to reach groups, whether due to geography or culture.

Our plans moving forward:

We are working to reduce the impact of barriers to care, such as a patient's location, culture, language, income, or primary care availability. Our aim is to improve the patient experience and reduce wait times for care and treatment, such as has been done with the opening of the Western Manitoba Cancer Centre, which has brought cancer care much closer to home for residents of Brandon and Western Manitoba.

Our goal is to improve access to cancer services right across the province. We will work closely with many partners, including health care, government and the public, to ensure understanding and improve access for patients and their families. To do so, we will continue to expand the provincial Community Cancer Program Network (CCPN) and UPCON ( Uniting Primary Care and Oncology Network). We'll also work closely with new, or 'at risk', and harder to reach populations through education, to increase their understanding of cancer services available. We will also work closely with our many Aboriginal partners to find ways to deliver culturally appropriate care to Manitoba's First Nation, Metis and Inuit populations across Manitoba.

We will continue our outreach to all Manitobans through our prevention and screening programs. Access to our breast, cervical and colorectal screening programs will be expanded, because the sooner a cancer is identified, the more successfully it can be treated.

Safety & Patient - Centred Care

We will keep people safe and put patients and their families at the centre of care.

Qualityand safety in cancer care includes both the excellence of the care Together, with our partners in health care across the province, we will offer patients and families high quality care that puts them first, while keeping everyone safe. To do so requires technical competence, superior communications skills, and consistent patient involvement with decision-making. High quality care also means a safe, team environment, where concerns and new ideas are shared openly.

Our plans moving forward:

Our plan for delivering safe, patient-centred care spans the entire cancer journey, both within CCMB, and with our health care partners across the province. We will share and adopt quality and safety practises, to provide high quality patient care for all. We will continue to create an organizational culture with systems and programs that focus on patient care and safety. With our partners, we will advance electronic health record management and the use of technology, so that a patient's health record is available across Manitoba, to improve consultation between the health care providers a patient will encounter on their journey.

We will also expand our Patient Navigation program to ensure an efficient and high quality patient experience, and we will improve support for patients and family in psychosocial distress.

Efficiency & Effectiveness:

We will improve the system's performance and responsiveness.

Our plan commits us to continuous improvement in our efficiency and effectiveness. A cancer diagnosis creates a ripple effect in the health care system, with inherent strain on resources as different parts of the system are involved in treatment and care. Our challenge is to rapidly deliver high quality care to an increasing number of patients, while managing with existing resources or by advocating for increased resources where needed.

Our plans moving forward:

We want to reduce the overuse, underuse and misuse of our resources to improve the cancer system's efficiency. Our plan has four parts - changing care models, expanding space, increased use of technology, and measuring performance to enact meaningful change based on results.

First, we'll change the way we approach cancer treatment by develop a new model of care, by extending multi disciplinary teams that will enable integrated and coordinated cancer services across the province. Secondly, we'll expand the space in which we deliver care to improve patient access to innovative therapies. Thirdly, we will utilize information technology that further develops electronic health records, to connect the multiple care providers in a patients' journey. And finally, we'll measure our performance at every step of the cancer journey, and respond to indicators that point where improvements are necessary.

We've already been working on this aspect of our plan over the past three year, resulting in the culmination of two major care and treatment initiatives - our Cancer Wait Time Strategy, and expanded cancer care facilities in Winnipeg.

The Cancer Wait Time Strategy is the first of its kind in Canada, and our aim is to dramatically improve access for all our patients across Manitoba, from wherever they may be on their cancer journey - from suspicion of cancer through to treatment. This initiative will integrate and coordinate cancer services across Manitoba, which will reduce wait times and increase access to care.

A new CCMB facility on the Health Sciences Centre campus is our second initiative that is progressing rapidly as a result of planning and work already done. The new facility will focus specialized care through Centres of Excellence for Colorectal Cancer, Aboriginal/First Nation/Inuit/Metis care, and enhanced research facilities. Gains already achieved in research through the Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology will be furthered to bring leading edge care, from lab bench to clinic, and our patients, faster than ever before.

Education & Research

We will prioritize the roles of education and research to promote improvements in cancer control and treatment.

Education and teaching are essential components of our academic mandate. We want to ensure our staff have access to education opportunities to develop and maintain skills that lead to better patient care.

Our affiliation with the University of Manitoba, and the opportunities for teaching and research that are offered through this affiliation, have a positive impact on the recruitment of professionals and is a major strength of CCMB.

We also want to continue share what we know with our partner health care providers outside of CancerCare Manitoba. We do so through innovative programs reaching health care professionals across Manitoba.

We also want to provide the best information and understanding to our patients, their families and all Manitobans about what CancerCare Manitoba can do for them.

Our plans moving forward:

We will expand continuing education opportunities for CCMB staff, as all of us - whether medical specialists, caregivers, administrative staff or support staff - benefit from learning new skills and upgrading existing ones. We will also expand ongoing initiatives such as UPCON and the CCP network with our health care partners outside of CCMB. We will work with these partners to increase knowledge, understanding, and sharing of resources to better integrate and coordinate cancer care for all our patients.

In terms of research, we have some of the best scientists in the world, and and plans for an expansion of the work done by the Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology will proceed with the new CCMB facility, through the Manitoba Research Centre. Groundbreaking research can then go from lab to medical clinics, reaching patients faster with leading edge care.

The real beneficiaries of the entire CCMB Cancer Plan will of course be our patients and their families.We will continue to reach out with information and communications on how to prevent cancer, and how we can help should it strike. Most of all, we will work to ensure every Manitoban knows where to turn if they need help against this disease.