"The Registry will create the largest and most complete brain cancer dataset ever assembled in Australia."
Alex Dunn, Project Manager, Brain Cancer Australia
Driving a data-led approach to improving brain cancer care
Australians with brain cancer deserve gold-standard treatment – regardless of where they live or what hospital they walk into.
The pathway to achieving this is through data, and that’s where Alex Dunn, the newest member of the Brain Cancer Australia team, comes in.
As Project Manager of the Australian Brain Cancer Registry, Alex is overseeing the development of the largest and most complete brain cancer dataset ever assembled in Australia.
“The Registry will capture clinical-quality data on treatment and outcomes across the entire brain cancer journey from diagnosis to end of life. It will help clinicians and researchers identify unwarranted variations and make statistically significant, robust conclusions about how to improve brain cancer care.”
Originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, Alex has a background in economics, statistics and health data modelling. He spent ten years in the New Zealand government, leading the development of national cancer data platforms, before moving to Australia to work on the Registry.
Based at Cancer Alliance Queensland, Alex is focused on scaling the registry beyond its Queensland pilot phase to a national level. His work includes navigating complex ethics and legislation requirements across different states to enable data-sharing – an essential step in creating a cohesive national system that can serve the entire brain cancer community.
“Brain cancer research has been held back by small patient numbers and fragmented data. The Registry is about bringing all of Australia’s brain cancer data together from all sources and jurisdictions into a single place, allowing us to answer the most important questions—where are the gaps in brain cancer diagnosis and treatment, and what can we do to improve outcomes?”
By analysing this data, the Registry identifies areas where care needs improvement and works with those regions to lift standards based on an agreed set of treatment protocols. At the same time, it highlights where things are being done exceptionally well. “We can learn from those pockets where superior outcomes are being achieved and apply those insights more broadly,” Alex says.
In the long term, Alex envisions a fully integrated, automated registry that not only tracks patient outcomes but also connects individuals with clinical trials and emerging treatment pathways via our Opt Me In Platform.
You can read more about the Registry here.
