Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2026

Implementing automated dashboards to drive equity in colonoscopy access and quality: a metro-regional collaboration (146497)

Diana Lewis 1 , Helen Longton 2 , Yuwei Julian Rong 3 , Geoffrey P Kohn 3 , Bobby Bradley-Smith 3 , Steward Harper 4 , Lucas Lloyd 5 , Troy Bailey 5 , Emma Nguyen 5 , Chris Compt 5 , Sarah Fisher 5 , Adam English 6 , Rebecca van de Paverd 1 , Wanda Stelmach 1 , Linda Nolte 2
  1. Northern Health, EppIng, VIC, Australia
  2. North Eastern Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service (NEMICS), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. Latrobe Regional Health, Traralgon, Victoria, Australia
  4. Gippsland Regional Integrated Cancer Service (GRICS), Traralgon, Victoria, Australia
  5. Mildura Base Public Hospital, Mildura, Victoria, Australia
  6. Loddon Mallee Integrated Cancer Service (LMICS), Bendigo, Victoria, Australia

Background

Colonoscopy enables earlier cancer diagnosis and prevents colorectal cancer through detection and removal of precancerous lesions. Access and quality, however, vary between health services, particularly in regional settings. In Victoria, the median time from a positive National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) result to colonoscopy was 55 days in 2022, compared with the recommended 30 days, while quality monitoring for clinician credentialling remains largely manual. Northern Health’s validated automated dashboard offered a scalable approach to improving quality and access monitoring.

Aim

To implement automated monitoring of colonoscopy access and quality across metropolitan and regional health services.

Methods

A collaborative implementation model was used across Northern Health (NH), Latrobe Regional Health (LRH) and Mildura Base Public Hospital (MBPH), supported by Victorian Integrated Cancer Services.

Workstreams included identifying NBCSP-referred colonoscopies, mapping National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR) requirements, adapting the NH dashboard to regional LRH and MBPH data environments, validating data flows, developing dashboard field descriptions and an implementation guide.

Results

NBCSP-specific waiting list reporting was implemented at NH, enabling real-time monitoring of access timeliness. Automated NCSR reporting progressed through secure patient matching, field mapping and source-system reporting planning. Dashboards and clinical governance were implemented at LRH and MBPH, enabling real-time monitoring of adenoma and serrated lesion detection rates, bowel preparation quality, and caecal intubation rates. The dashboards incorporated 3 years of retrospective data including 15,876 colonoscopies at NH, 6201 at LRH and 4048 at MBPH, involving 69, 21 and 16 clinicians respectively.

Conclusion

This metro-regional partnership demonstrates that automated colonoscopy dashboards can be adapted across diverse health services and strengthen clinical governance by making access, quality and reporting data visible for service planning, quality improvement and credentialling. Further expansion will support benchmarking and help develop more equitable colorectal cancer prevention strategies across metropolitan and regional settings.