Kahlia our Project Officer / Nurse Educator at NECA attended the 2025 National Cancer Survivorship Conference hosted by COSA (in partnership with Flinders University, the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre, and the VCCC Alliance) this month at the Rydges Melbourne.
With the theme ‘Building capability and capacity in survivorship care and research’ it was a wonderful conference highlighting the importance of advancing survivorship care from the individuals with living or lived experience to the health care system.
Kahlia attended the pre-conference workshop ‘From Patient to Partner: Unlocking the power of consumer engagement’ which was a great chance to expand on the understanding of consumer engagement and share valuable insights from individuals with lived and living experience to ensure partnerships and co-design into services and research.
The conference was a two-day event and due to cyclone Alfred, unfortunately some wonderful presenters were not able to be present in person however they were still able to present remotely which was fantastic. Presenters ranged from individuals with lived or living experience with cancer to healthcare professionals in various professions from exercise physiologists, oncologists, general practitioners, researchers, endocrinologists to nurses.
The Conference prompted bold discussions and lively exchange on:
- What is capability and capacity in survivorship and how to build it.
- Building capacity at home.
- Implementation and health system planning.
- The basic science of cancer survivorship.
- Global survivorship.
- Metastatic cancer survivorship.