At the same time the pandemic placed a huge burden on hospital infection prevention teams, it triggered a rapid overhaul of the way they delivered training.
Bringing people into a room for face-to-face training did not meet COVID safety protocols, and so these usually hands-on sessions needed to be rapidly redesigned.
A paper just published in the American Journal of Infection Control describes how, in the early phase of the pandemic, the training of hand hygiene auditors at Peter Mac shifted to online only.
The time needed to complete the major training session was also cut in half (from 8 hours in-person to 4 hours online) and made more flexible, able to be completed over two weeks.
Associate Professor Leon Worth, lead author on the paper, said the changes were all positive and served as a model for delivering online training that meets strict healthcare standards.
“At an incredibly busy time, our infection prevention team needed to change and re-write how training was delivered to staff who would play key roles in the pandemic response,” says Associate Professor Worth, who is Medical Director of Infection Prevention at Peter Mac.
“Shifting this training online, and reducing the time needed to complete it, led to both a doubling in the number of hand hygiene auditors able to be trained and it improved results in their final assessments.”
Thirteen new auditors were trained Peter Mac in 2018 and in 2019, again before the pandemic, a further 12 were trained. In 2021, with the pandemic in full swing, 24 new auditors were trained.
The newly minted auditors had fewer errors in their final assessments than those trained before the pandemic.
The paper is titled “Hands off hand hygiene training”: Implementation of a COVID safe auditor training program”, and you can read the paper in full online.
Co-authors were Peter Mac Infection Prevention Manager Elizabeth Gillespie and, Infection Prevention Nurse Consultant Cheryl Faul.
Contacts:
For more information contact the Peter Mac Communications team on 0417 123 048.
About Peter Mac:
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a world-leading cancer research, education and treatment centre and Australia’s only public health service solely dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer.
A new drug is showing potent results in hard-to-treat blood cancers and was able to trigger a complete response – meaning the cancer became undetectable – for more than a third of patients.
All patients in the Phase I / II clinical trial of glofitamab had Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) and their cancer had relapsed or was no longer responding to conventional treatments, including CAR T-cell therapy.
Peter Mac treated the first patients in the world with glofitamab and was a major recruitment site for this international and multi-centre study of 155 patients, led by Associate Professor Michael Dickinson. Results of the trial have just published overnight in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Overall, and at a median follow-up a year (12.6 months) after Glofitamab treatment, 39% of the patients had a complete response. This was consistent (35% complete response rate) among 52 of these patients who had earlier received CAR T-cell therapy.
Associate Professor Dickinson said glofitamab‘s effects were also durable, as for many (78%) patients with a complete response this was ongoing for 12 months or more.
“We are greatly encouraged by these data which show a fixed course of glofitamab therapy can induce durable, complete responses for many patients who have faced disappointment from their disease not responding to multiple prior rounds of treatments, including CAR T-cell therapy,” says Associate Professor Dickinson, who is Lead of the Aggressive Lymphoma Disease Group within Clinical Haematology Department at Peter Mac and Royal Melbourne Hospital.
“Glofitamab is also exciting because it offers potential of an effective ‘off the shelf’ option for patients with hard-to-treat blood cancers and who live in parts of the world that may not have ready access to CAR T-cell therapy due to the complexity of delivering this highly tailored treatment.”
Australians with DLBCL who meet eligibility criteria may have funded access to CAR T-cell therapy – which involves collecting the patient’s T-cells, re-engineering these to fight their cancer, and infusing these back into the patient. About 40% of DLBCL patients achieve a durable remission after CAR T-cell therapy.
Glofitamab is a bispecific antibody treatment that engages the patient’s T-cells to fight their blood cancer. Patients receive a fixed course of intravenous infusions available “off-the-shelf” as opposed to CAR T-cell therapy which is uniquely prepared for each patient.
Read the paper titled “Glofitamab for Relapsed or Refractory Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma”.
Associate Professor Dickinson is also leading a Peter-Mac sponsored Australian trial of glofitamab as part of front-line treatment for DLBCL that is recruiting at sites across Australia.
Note: Associate Professor Dickinson is currently in the US presenting at the 64th ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition and so availability for follow-up interviews may be limited
Contacts
For more information contact the Peter Mac Communications team on 0417 123 048
About Peter Mac
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a world-leading cancer research, education and treatment centre and Australia’s only public health service solely dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer.
Experts from Peter Mac presented more than 50 pieces of research at the 64th annual American Society of Hematology conference in New Orleans over the weekend.
“The American Society of Hematology (ASH) is the preeminent haematology conference in the world bringing together more than 20,000 clinicians and scientists to help improve our understanding of, and outcomes for patients affected by, blood diseases,” Professor John Seymour, Director of Haematology at Peter Mac and Royal Melbourne Hospital, said.
“In 2022, more than 50 presentations of research projects conducted by Peter Mac were showcased at this international meeting! This is a true testament to the calibre of our clinicians and researchers and the Haematology program overall.”
We share with you three of the impressive research projects presented by Peter Mac at this year’s ASH conference.
Uncovering what causes a rare haematology condition
Associate Professor Piers Blombery, Professor Graham Lieschke and their collaborators have identified a rare genetic cause of a haematology condition that causes high blood counts and early onset autoimmune disease.
A local patient that was being treated for their lifelong high white blood cell and platelet count coupled with many autoimmune diseases was analysed by the diagnostic molecular service at Peter Mac. This revealed that the patient had a mutation in a gene called SH2B3.
Piers and Graham teamed up with collaborators in the UK who had identified another patient with a similar syndrome. It was found that this patient also had a mutated SH2B3 gene. To demonstrate that the mutated SH2B3 gene was causing the disease, Graham’s team genetically altered zebrafish to carry the SH2B3 mutation. These gene-edited zebrafish developed similar blood count abnormalities as the two patients.
Based on an understanding of how the SH2B3 gene normally regulates blood cell production, these fish were used to test a potential drug treatment for the disease. The treatment worked effectively to normalise their elevated blood counts.
Piers, Graham and their collaborators have combined clinical and laboratory work to successfully identify the gene responsible for this very rare disease, find a potential treatment to help with the condition, and a way to identify future patients when they present with similar symptoms.
An effective combination treatment for relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma
People with a rare form of B-cell lymphoma known as mantle cell lymphoma are incredibly difficult to treat when their cancer returns or doesn’t respond to treatment. This is especially true for mantle cell lymphoma patients that carry a mutated TP53 gene.
Dr Adrian Minson and Associate Professor Michael Dickinson initiated and led a trial to test a combination of two treatments, ibrutinib which works to stop the cancer growth and tisagenlecleucel, a CD19 CAR T-cell therapy that uses the patient’s own genetically modified T-cells to seek out and destroy cancer.
The combination treatment was very effective with 80 per cent of patients having no lymphoma at four months. Patients were followed for an average of 13 months and the majority were still in remission at twelve months.
Impressively a proportion of the patients had genetic mutations that put them at a high risk of relapse with other treatments. These patients did very well on the combination providing an effective treatment for those at greatest risk of relapse.
The combination treatment only needs to be taken for a short period of time, with tisagenlecleucel given as a single dose and ibrutinib given for approximately 6 months. Despite this, the treatment was effective at keeping the lymphoma in remission.
Reducing the risk of severe COVID-19 infections in our vulnerable cancer patients
Haematology nurse, Ashley Whitechurch, presented her research into the effectiveness of a treatment to prevent COVID-19 infections.
The pandemic left people with a blood cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) at risk of a severe COVID-19 infection because their cancer made the vaccination less effective.
To better protect these patients Peter Mac and Alfred Health ran a program to provide CLL patients with a COVID-19 preventative medication called Evusheld. A follow-on study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of this medication.
The preventative treatment was offered to 571 patients with 63 per cent of people taking up the offer. Only eight of the 236 patients in ongoing follow up were diagnosed with COVID-19 within 3 months of receiving Evusheld.
Overall, Evusheld was well tolerated with early rates of severe COVID-19 infection post administration appearing low.
On International Volunteers Day, we thank our volunteers for their many contributions.
Volunteers fulfil an integral role across many areas of Peter Mac. Each day, patients and carers access services designed to ease their cancer journey and make their hospital stay more comfortable.
Our volunteers provide a huge range of support services.
In the first half of 2022 they fitted 86 wigs for patients experiencing hair loss, and delivered 838 product bags to inpatients. They sewed 176 breast pillows, 370 hand-crafted bags, and 503 pieces of headwear.
Volunteers manage the Peter Mac Auxiliary Group, running a shop of handcrafted items that has been raising funds for nearly 40 years, and providing items direct to patients to improve their care and experience.
Many volunteers also contribute to the Nancy Kinsella Patients’ Library, offering a wide variety of items from books to puzzles, for the enjoyment of both inpatients and outpatients.
Speaking to volunteers Heather, Clarel, and Astrid, it’s clear that they love their work.
“If I can make someone smile I’m a very happy woman - if I can make them laugh I’m even happier. If somebody needs something I’m happy to do it,” says Heather, who has worked as a volunteer for four years.
“It’s rewarding for me as a person, and fulfilling. What I give out I get back in spades,” she says.
Peter Mac’s volunteers create and maintain comfortable spaces like the Wellbeing Centre or Patient Library, which have a welcoming and inviting atmosphere than a ward or treatment room.
“It’s totally different there,” Astrid says, “you make people tea and coffee and just speak with them. You soon learn how to approach people and be sensitive to their needs and how they’re feeling”.
While some of the team have been directly affected by cancer and hope to pass on the care and support they received, others are here because they want “to do something worthwhile”, as Heather puts it.
Clarel explained that the strength of the team is invaluable.
“The best part about [the team] is the environment - the support, the atmosphere of validation that you get out from being here.”
Peter Mac’s volunteer service is newly reinvigorated following the pandemic, with volunteers clearly happy to be back on-site.
Peter Mac thanks every amazing volunteer and the staff that support them for their work, care, and dedication.
Click this link to learn more about volunteering at Peter Mac.
During the Christmas/New Year break, the Wellbeing Centre will be closed on all public holidays, with reduced hours on other days as follows:
Normal hours will resume from Tuesday 3rd January, 9:00am - 5:00pm. We will be also closed on Australia Day (Thursday, 26 January 2023).
From all the team in the Wellbeing Centre, we wish all our patients, carers and colleagues a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!