Fresh Ideas for Cancer Care 2.0: Rare Cancer Diseases

Improving efficiency in cancer care through joint problem solving by qualified PhD students and leading experts in the field

In the summer of 2022 the Center for Medicine-Ethics-Law Helvetiae and the PhD program Biomedical Ethics and Law / Law Track of the University of Zurich launched the project “Fresh Ideas for Cancer Care 2.0: Rare Cancer Diseases” in cooperation with All.Can Switzerland, a global policy initiative aiming to improve efficiency in cancer care.

Different actors in the field of cancer care experience a variety of challenges and issues. With the common goal to improve efficiency in cancer care, stakeholders, experts and interested PhD students joined forces to develop solutions to relevant problems. Each stakeholder or expert participating in this project highlighted issues that have arisen in practice and presented a specific set of questions to be treated by the PhD students.

The project “Fresh Ideas for Cancer Care 2.0” offered PhD students from different disciplines and backgrounds (e.g. medicine, natural sciences, law and economics) the opportunity to work on one of the presented practical cases and to connect with leading stakeholders and experts in the field. The project’s aim was to develop new approaches in cancer research, in the development of medicine and therapies as well as financing, to identify and remedy inefficiencies and to search for alternative solutions.

General topics

Topic 1:	Rare cancers: Pricing and reimbursement of drugs or therapies
Topic 2:	Rare cancers: Personalised medicine in prevention, diagnosis and therapy - opportunities and risks
Topic 3:	Treatment and care of affected persons and relatives with a special focus on adolescents and young adults
Topic 4:	Digitalisation: Integration and inclusion of affected persons via digital channels

Specific problems

Topic 1:	Benefit- and value-based compensation: The problem of assessing the value of therapies for rare cancers
Topic 2:	Individual patient parameters and systematic comparison: The basis for informing individualized therapeutic recommendations
Topic 3:	Treatment of adolescent and young adult cancer patients in Switzerland
Topic 4:	"Dynamic Consent" in medical research

Participating experts

Topic 1:	Dr. Jan Depta (Novartis), Dr. Andreas Wildi (Walder Wyss), Dr. Dominik Wettstein (Einkaufsgemeinschaft HSK)
Topic 2:	Dr. Daniel Vonder Mühll (Personalized Health and Related Technologies PHRT), Prof. Dr. Andreas Wicki (USZ), Prof. Dr. Simone Schürle (ETH Zurich), Prof. Dr. Valentina Boeva (ETH Zurich), Dr. Emma Pooley (former ETH Zurich)
Topic 3:	Dr. Katharina Roser (University of Lucerne)
Topic 4:	Dr. Julian Mausbach (UZH), Marcel Pfaffhauser (IBM Research)

Timetable

Kick-Off Event	08. September 2022	Experts present their problems to the participants
Focus Groups I	September 2022 - February 2023	The participants work on the received problems in their respective groups Every group will be coached by their expert in the specific field Groups are encouraged to invite/meet with other stakeholders to better understand the problem Write report and workshop handout
Afternoon Workshop	16. February 2023	All focus groups present and then discuss their preliminary results All experts and stakeholders are invited
Focus Groups II	February 2023 - June 2023	Finalization: Implementation of feedbacks and finalization of report Prepare final presentation Deadline final report: 22. May 2023
Public Event	01. June 2023	1.5h public event at UZH to present the solutions: Each group to present their solutions within e.g. 10 min speech Panel discussion mixed with experts and participants