2022 CAPO INNOVATION AWARD RECIPIENT: The Ottawa Hospital Wellness Beyond Cancer Program

Dr. Amirrtha Srikanthan, Vicky Samuel, RN, Kelly-Anne Baines, RN, and Gail Larocque, NP

The Wellness Beyond Cancer Program at The Ottawa Hospital has been in place since 2012. This program aims to ensure that all breast, colon and endometrial cancer patients, who have completed active cancer treatment, have access to appropriate follow-up care and resources, including psychosocial care. Since 2012, we have facilitated the discharge of over 10,000 cancer survivors from the regional tertiary cancer centre, through our specialized NP and RN team. The program also includes a nurse practitioner specialised in oncology care and survivorship, who provides direct clinical care to patients who require it prior to their official discharge. The clinical impact to patients and health care providers has been instrumental in sustaining the program for the past decade.   

2019 CAPO INNOVATION AWARD RECIPIENT: The Androgen Deprivation Therapy Educational Team

The core team of the Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT) Educational Team is comprised of Drs. Richard Wassersug, Erik Wibowo, John Robinson, Lauren Walker, Andrew Matthew, and Deborah McLeod. We work together to help prostate cancer patients maintain a good quality of life while on ADT. The impetus for the ADT Educational Program began after Richard Wassersug, currently an Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia and a prostate cancer patient, started ADT treatment some 18 years ago. Richard was curious about the physiological and psychosocial effects of ADT and began research on them. Independently, Dr. John Robinson, a Clinical Psychologist with the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, started working with prostate cancer patients in the 1980s. Over the years, he observed that many prostate cancer patients on ADT lacked support to manage ADT-related side effects. Under Dr. Robinson’s supervision, Dr. Lauren Walker began working with men on ADT in 2007 as a Masters student. During her PhD, her dissertation formed the basis of the team’s book, Androgen Deprivation Therapy: An Essential Guide for Prostate Cancer Patients and Their Loved Ones. Now it its second edition, and also translated into French, the book has sold over 60,000 copies. Dr. Walker now an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, continues to facilitate ADT classes and also champions patient access and staff training of the program on an international level. To sort out physiological reality of ADT from placebo effects, Dr. Wassersug began with preclinical research investigating how rodents responded to androgen deprivation. Dr. Erik Wibowo joined him in this research, first as a PhD student and later as his postdoctoral fellow. Erik contributed to the implementation of the ADT Educational Program, and served as Program Coordinator from 2014-2018. Dr. Andrew Matthew, Clinical Psychologist from the Princess Margaret Health Cancer Centre in Toronto, and Dr. Deborah McLeod, Clinician Scientist and Adjunct Professor from Dalhousie University in Halifax, have been involved in the ADT Educational Program since its inception. They have offered face-to-face ADT classes as part of the ADT Educational Program in their cancer centres, making it a truly national program. The newest member of the team is Carly Sears, who joined as Project Coordinator in 2018, when Dr. Wibowo moved to a faculty position at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The ADT Educational Program is now available in face-to-face format in several Canadian cancer centres and is also available online so that patients and partners can access the program regardless of where they live. Well over 1,500 men and partners have participated in the face-to-face classes, which began in 2014; 324 have participated in the online program, which was implemented in 2018. Most recently, the program has been offered at the Moffitt Cancer Centre in Tampa and plans are underway to make the program available to Europeans and Australians.

2016 CAPO INNOVATION AWARD RECIPIENT: Dr. Carole Mayer, RSW, PhD