From left to right: Dr Natalie Taylor, Dr Janet Long and Dr Deborah Debono.

A team led by Dr Natalie Taylor from the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation was last week awarded with a Cancer Institute NSW Premier’s Award for Outstanding Cancer Research.

Dr Taylor is chief investigator for a Translational Cancer Research Network (TCRN) project aimed at improving referral and genetic testing rates of patients at risk of Lynch Syndrome.

Lynch Syndrome is an inherited condition predisposing carriers to a higher risk of a range of cancers, particularly bowel cancer. It is believed to affect tens of thousands of Australians, but is extremely under-diagnosed.

Working with clinicians from two New South Wales hospitals, Dr Taylor and her team involving Dr Janet Long, Dr Deborah Debono and Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, mapped the complex referral process for Lynch syndrome patients, identified behavioural and system-related gaps as target areas for change, and co-designed and implemented interventions with clinicians to overcome key psychosocial barriers to referral.

“Our team – traversing research, clinical care and social science – is breaking new ground in this ‘T3’ field which focuses on translating evidence into practice in the real world,” says Dr Taylor. “We are developing and refining methodologies for understanding and working with healthcare systems to embed sustainable change and improvements. We believe our progress puts New South Wales in a prime position internationally as a ‘T3’ cancer research pioneer.”

The Cancer Institute NSW Premier’s Awards for Outstanding Cancer Research is an annual event and is the state’s leading awards program recognising excellence and innovation in cancer research.

“To win such a prestigious award is fantastic,” says Dr Taylor. “Not only does it provide recognition for the hard work the team of researchers and clinicians have put into this project, but it also emphasises the importance and value of Implementation Science in Cancer to a wide audience – for this we are extremely proud.”