Cancer Council Victoria

Cancer Data Now Instantly Accessible

So many questions...

“What is the trend for Melanoma in Victoria compared to other parts of the world?” “How does the rate of lung cancer compare between men and women?” “What are the leading cancers in Victoria?”

You can find these answers and many more on the Cancer Council Victoria website, in The Accessible Registry Data Interrogation System application.

The Cancer Council Victoria (CCV) is a non‐profit organization involved in cancer research and cancer support, prevention and advocacy. CCV operates the Victorian Cancer Registry (VCR), which collects details of all cancers diagnosed in Victoria in accordance with the Cancer (Reporting and Registers) Act 1981. Since the beginning of 1982 the VCR has maintained a register of all cases of cancer diagnosed in Victoria. Part of the VCR’s role is to publish cancer incidence and mortality information to help improve cancer prevention, control, and treatment.

The VCR’s information users come from a broad range of communities and have very different levels of computing skills, analytical skills, and analytical requirements. Users include:

• cancer sufferers, their relatives and friends
• epidemiologists
• clinical researchers
• teachers and students
• government health service departments
• other CCV cancer control programmes (SunSmart, PapScreen)
• registries in other domains
• the general public
• media (newspaper, television, local radio).

Too hard to find answers

The VCR’s traditional data dissemination method involves presenting users with all of the collected data in large annual publications. From these the users find the answers to their ad hoc requests by sifting through tables, graphs, slides, reports, and data sets.

With traditional reports, if users cannot find the answers they need, they call the CCV and make ad hoc requests. This method, while suitable for some users, does not generally suit the ‘instant gratification’ mentality of modern users.
In the mid-2000s it became apparent that the amount of adhoc requests was slowly overwhelming VCR’s resources. Their information officers were receiving over 450 requests per annum from users with simple, ad hoc requests for data. Although the average response time was same- or next-day, it was recognised that users wanted a more immediate response to receive the valuable information they required.

It was clear a more effective way had to be found to share information and respond to the hundreds of simple,
common, ad hoc user requests.

Instant answers

VCR decided to complement their traditional publication presentation method by making their most commonly requested information available online. In collaboration with Space-Time Research, they designed an interactive reporting system for use via their website.

The final product, The Accessible Registry Data Interrogation System (TARDIS), utilises a customised version of the SuperVIEW View Selection Template. This template provides the user-friendly interface that users require, enabling them to easily find popularly requested information and view multiple visualisations. The system also meets all of VCR’s data reporting requirements.

“Technically, SuperVIEW has all the power, flexibility and configuration capabilities we need. And its intuitive, user-friendly interface and multiple views are the perfect fit for our audience.

The data reporting output includes ‘rates’ as a measure.This is one of the most frequently requested formats to view cancer incidence and mortality data and TARDIS handles this superbly.”

Helen Farrugia, Director Registry Systems, Cancer Council Victoria

No analytical skills? No problem

Users access VCR’s nine most frequently requested data reports via the TARDIS website. The website is designed for people who are not always familiar with cancer data, who do not have formal training in IT, yet still want answers to questions. It allows users to obtain summary statistics about cancer incidence and mortality in Victoria in a variety of table and graph formats.

TARDIS displays more than just static data in the reports. It uses online analytical processing technology to provide interactive screens that allow users to change their view of the cancer data according to their requirements.
After viewing an initial report, users can change which type of cancers are shown, time periods, rates for males and females, which population standard they want the rates standardised to, and many other display options. Plus they can download any report to their computer as a .pdf file or .csv file.

It is this interactivity that makes TARDIS a valuable tool for any user of cancer information, no matter what their level of computer or analytical skills.

Compare rates for local and global populations

Cancer incidence and mortality rates are the VCR’s most commonly requested reports, and an extremely common exercise is to compare the rates between states, territories, and other countries.

TARDIS standardises rates to six different populations, making it simple to compare VCR’s data to other similar national and international cancer data collections.

To answer other commonly asked questions, VCR presents cancer rates by year of diagnosis by State or Region, and by country of birth. To enable TARDIS to compute cancer rates, the, VCR uses population data available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that has been imported into the CCV database. This enables users to easily answer questions like:

• “What is the trend for Melanoma cancer in Victoria compared to the other areas?”
• "How does the rate of lung cancer compare between men and women ?”
• “What is the rate of kidney cancer in Metropolitan Victoria?”
  

Community embraces self-service

After the tools were chosen it took only six months for the system to be built. Considering the size and complexity of the project, this timeframe was very short, yet it was met with time to spare. During trials, user experience feedback from the clinical community was extremely positive, and VCR are excited to be providing them with a tool that so adequately meets their expectations.

Now the comprehensive range of interactive reports is available to broad communities of users in the simple, self-service TARDIS online application.

Users can easily and quickly obtain answers to their ad hoc questions, allowing VCR analysts to answer the more complex inquiries and focus on their other core duties.

Case Study

Download the Cancer Council Victoria Case StudyA4 Letter

Try out the product

Try out the interactive data tool at the Cancer Council Victoria or learn more about the underlying technology, see SuperVIEW.