The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), a global initiative of Qatar Foundation, presented its research on affordable cancer care to Australian members of parliament (MPs) in Canberra last week.
The WISH report, entitled ‘Delivering Affordable Cancer Care: A Value Challenge to Health Systems’, aims to bring to the forefront best healthcare practices while inspiring innovation and discussion.
The trip to Australia comes in a bid to reinforce Qatar’s pioneering role as an emerging centre for healthcare innovation and generate discussion on how to overcome the world’s most urgent healthcare challenges. Encouraging the international community to take action will place Qatar at the forefront of the discussion and will mean that the nation, where statistics have shown cancer is the third most common cause of death, will be able to reap the benefits of vital developments.
Prof Robert J S Thomas, chief cancer adviser, Victorian Government, Australia, led last week’s discussions on the report with 100 Australian lawmakers. During the forum, MPs heard that despite outstanding progress made in cancer research and advances in patient treatment, the disease is still one of the top three areas of health expenditure, and that cancer care is too expensive for most patients and nearly all governments.
The report predicts that the burden of cancer will intensify with new cancer diagnoses expected to increase by around 16–32% over the next 10 years. It further asserts that from 2008 to 2030, cancer cases would rise by 65% in high-income countries, 80% in middle-income countries and 100% in the world’s
poorest countries.
The Australian policymakers were informed of the report’s policies to counteract excess spending and a number of innovative projects from around the world were raised to demonstrate how efficiencies could be driven and treatments
improved for patients.
WISH CEO, Egbert Schillings commented: “WISH is delighted to work with Forum Chair Prof. Thomas to carry the message of the report with clarity and conviction to the highest levels of policy leadership around the globe.”
“Pathway analysis along the entire patient journey in cancer, from prevention, screening, and diagnosis, to treatment and follow-up, will provide real impetus to innovative cost and quality management, for the benefit of the patient population and the system as a whole.”

Related Story