Abstract
The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer was created in 2007 by the federal government to accelerate cancer control across Canada. Its OncoSim microsimulation model platform, which consists of a suite of specific cancer models, was conceived as a tool to augment conventional resources for population-level policy- and decision-making. The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer manages the OncoSim program, with funding from Health Canada and model development by Statistics Canada. Microsimulation modelling allows for the detailed capture of population heterogeneity and health and demographic history over time. Extensive data from multiple Canadian sources were used as inputs or to validate the model. OncoSim has been validated through expert consultation; assessments of face validity, internal validity, and external validity; and model fit against observed data. The platform comprises three in-depth cancer models (lung, colorectal, cervical), with another in-depth model (breast) and a generalized model (25 cancers) being in development. Unique among models of its class, OncoSim is available online for public sector use free of charge. Users can customize input values and output display, and extensive user support is provided. OncoSim has been used to support decision-making at the national and jurisdictional levels. Although simulation studies are generally not included in hierarchies of evidence, they are integral to informing cancer control policy when clinical studies are not feasible. OncoSim can evaluate complex intervention scenarios for multiple cancers. Canadian decision-makers thus have a powerful tool to assess the costs, benefits, cost-effectiveness, and budgetary effects of cancer control interventions when faced with difficult choices for improvements in population health and resource allocation.
Highlights
Against the backdrop of an aging population, new technologies and drugs, and constrained health care budgets, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer was created in 2007 with a mandate from the federal government to accelerate cancer control across Canada
■■ To develop an accessible, comprehensive, Web-based platform that projects the future burden of cancer and its economic effects
Unique among models of its class, OncoSim is available for public sector use without charge
Summary
Against the backdrop of an aging population, new technologies and drugs, and constrained health care budgets, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (hereinafter, the Partnership) was created in 2007 with a mandate from the federal government to accelerate cancer control across Canada. The OncoSim microsimulation model platforma, with its suite of specific cancer models, was conceived as a tool to augment conventional information resources for population-level Canadian decision-making, within the reality of thirteen jurisdictional health care systems. We describe the rationale, development, and application of the OncoSim platform, providing the cancer a Until 2016, the OncoSim model platform was called the Cancer Risk Management Model.
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