The Pelican IMPACT (Improving Management for Patients with Advanced Colorectal Tumours) programme was a series of workshops focused on advanced and secondary colorectal cancer with four main topics: colorectal cancers which have spread to the liver, lung, peritoneum, or into the bladder and other pelvic organs.
The programme was delivered at scale, with workshops running across the UK reaching hundreds of practising clinicians. The programme was created by Mr Brendan Moran and Sarah Crane, CEO until April 2019 of Pelican Cancer Foundation, in conjunction with the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI).
Thanks to the charitable funding that we receive, the programme was free to attend for 7 core members of each colorectal team and over 1,400 cancer specialists were involved in this hugely important educational programme.
The main objective of Pelican IMPACT was:
‘To improve outcomes through enhancing early, and timely, access for patients with advanced and secondary colorectal cancer to specialist advice and services, utilising local and regional expertise wherever possible with an individualized patient centred care’.
This can be summarized as the right treatment, at the right time, in the right place, for each individual patient with colorectal cancer. It also places an emphasis on treatment being local where possible, but central where necessary.
With clinical leadership from eminent experts in the field, the workshops were led by the recent Presidents of the ACPGBI Professor Jim Hill (2017-18), Mr Brendan Moran (2018-19) and Miss Nicola Fearnhead (2019-20).
The programme had exceptional reach and wide participation from clinical teams across the UK. The workshops were delivered by a multidisciplinary faculty of 231 cancer specialists. With their support, we delivered 13 one-day workshops across England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland to 1,187 clinicians, from 184 colorectal multidisciplinary teams (MDT’s), between January 2018 – January 2020.
The workshop approach was highly interactive, using real-life, anonymised patient cases, discussion and participant surveys to test current practice. There was strong input from palliative care specialists and a focus on integrating palliative care as “parallel” supportive care, and not just as end of life care.
The programme was principally funded by a grant of £161,000 by The Lady Yuen Peng McNeice Charitable Foundation and a grant of £50,000 from the ACPGBI. Pelican secured a further £36,670 in miscellaneous grants to support the programme. The charitable donations that we receive from donors (which includes, but is not limited to, individuals, Trust & Foundations, corporates, and industry) are central to funding the work that we carry out with cancer specialists.
Developing and delivering a programme of this scale was a huge achievement for Pelican. One of the comments made most often by participants was the strength of the face-to-face interaction, opportunities to meet local and regional experts and being able to explore pathways for their complex patients together.
Most importantly, feedback from the clinical teams participating was overwhelmingly positive and those who took part fed back the powerful message that Pelican IMPACT would improve outcomes and improve the care for people with advanced and recurrent cancer. ‘Superb day, really helpful to show how evidence is informing practice, how new innovations are being integrated into existing care pathways’ – Delegate attending South of England workshop.
From the verbal and written feedback given, we are in no doubt that this will improve the management for patients with advanced colorectal tumours, supporting doctors and nurses to improve length of life and quality of life, recognising that advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer may be amenable to cure, and if not, can be treated to improve a patient’s quality of life.
If you would like to donate to support our work and education programmes and courses in the future, please consider giving a one-off or regular donation via our CAFDonate page – https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/7324/#!/DonationDetails
