ReViTALISE has made great strides since its commencement in 2021. Overall, the program is tracking to plan, with strong collaboration and support demonstrated across and between the seven Initiatives.
Led by regional, rural and remote professionals, all Initiative teams are willingly and frequently accessing the regional network to leverage knowledge, skills and expertise to enhance deliverables. This collaborative spirit enriches the overall program and ultimately contributes to improved health outcomes for regional, rural and remote Victorians.
Despite initial setbacks experienced by some initiatives, ReViTALISE was a novel opportunity to be a part of, and facilitate, a regionally developed clinical trials and health services research program. Each Initiative has made significant progress, not only towards their individual goals and outcomes, but have been instrumental in leading change and growth in their respective clinical research domains.
Mid-way into the program, here are some of its notable achievements:
1. Expand Initiative
- Mildura Base Public Hospital: A new clinical research unit has been established at Mildura Base Public Hospital. A collaborative approach between the community of Mildura, the RTN-Vic, ReViTALISE, and the Alfred TrialHub has enabled the first clinical research unit in any therapeutic area for the Mallee and Wimmera Southern Mallee region.
- Latrobe Regional Health: continued to increase and improve access to clinical trials in Gippsland, exceeding targets in both the number of trials open and number of patients recruited, with expansion of trials in new specialty areas for medical oncology, including melanoma, and hematology, including lymphoma and leukemia.
2. Palliative and Supportive Care Initiative
- Increased Community palliative care trial capability building through collaboration and leveraging of the COMET program
- Leveraged the Victorian Palliative Care Clinical Trials Collaborative and enhanced clinical trial fellow activity.
- Increased site engagement where palliative and supportive care approaches have been embedded as part of standard care.
3. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Initiative
- Completed a Consultancy Report, synthesising evidence for strategies to improve access to cancer clinical trials for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- Established an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group, with Aboriginal consumers, health workers, health administrators and researchers.
- Developed strong relationships with key external stakeholders, such as Rumbalara Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO).
4. Immunotherapy Initiative
- The MOST Circuit Trial met its recruitment target of 240 participants in February 2024, with regional trial sites contributing a third of total participants (n=80). The trial provided high-quality immunotherapy trials to patients with rare neuroendocrine, biliary tract, gynaecological and mismatch repair protein deficient (MSI-H) cancers.
- Progressed the OligoProgressive Treatment for ImmunOtherapy patieNts (OPTION) trial, with Bendigo Health becoming an investigator-initiated trial sponsor for the first time.
- Increased immunotherapy-based trials across the program network partner sites resulting in recruitment of 118 patients in 2023.
- Developed a network-wide immunotherapy patient alert card designed to increase patient safety for regional patients presenting at emergency departments, who may not have experience with Immunotherapy adverse events.
- Commenced work on developing a toolkit to train regional health care workers on the management of immunotherapy side-effects.
5. Registry Initiative
- Successfully delivered educational collaborative programs with external stakeholders (eg VCCC Alliance) to raise awareness and understanding of registry trials
- Established synergies and efficiencies across other ReViTALISE Initiatives such as the OPTION Registry Trial (Immunotherapy Initiative), the Palliative Care and Terminal Care Registry Trial, and the BOLDER Trial (Geriatric Oncology).
6. Geriatric Oncology Initiative
- Developed and delivered educational and outreach programs
- Significant interest from oncology professionals enabled the Initiative to leverage diverse expertise and resources, by integrating medical professionals, academics and medical students to further important research in geriatric oncology.
7. Regional research Teaching Hub
- Conducted integrative reviews of national and international research training and resources to examine the best models of research education and training. These reviews informed the development of the @research platform and co-delivery of online practice change workshops.
Moving forward, potential challenges and obstacles have been identified, and potential mitigation strategies and solutions have been considered. We thank everyone who has been tirelessly supporting and contributing to the program. ReViTALISE will continue to pursue its vision of bridging the metro-regional trials gap by 2025, and help to improve outcomes for regional, rural and remote Victorians living with cancer.