title: Fostering partnerships in survivorship care: report of the 2011 Canadian genitourinary cancers survivorship conference.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  New models of survivorship care are required to address the needs of genitourinary (GU) cancer survivors. Current approaches do not effectively engage cancer survivors or advocacy groups. A group of clinicians in collaboration with the Canadian Urologic Association held a forum for GU cancer survivors, advocacy groups, and health professionals to explore ways to collaboratively enhance survivorship care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants attended a 2-day conference that included presentations, breakout groups, and a postconference survey. Discussions by breakout groups were recorded and analyzed alongside open-ended survey responses for common themes. Basic statistics were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Conference participants (n = 42) included 18 cancer survivors/caregivers, 21 health professionals, and 3 researchers representing bladder, kidney, prostate, and testis cancer groups. Breakout group discussions and responses to the postconference survey (83.3 % response rate) showed strong support for greater collaboration among all parties. Strategies to facilitate collaboration reflected a need to: (1) raise awareness of the shared and unique needs of GU cancer survivors and the expertise of cancer advocacy groups, (2) facilitate communication and collaborative opportunities among clinicians/researchers and cancer survivors/advocacy groups, (3) facilitate collaborative programming and fund-raising among GU advocacy groups, and (4) synthesize and facilitate access to GU cancer survivorship resources and services.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is strong support for formal collaboration to enhance survivorship care among a critical mass of GU cancer survivors, advocacy groups, clinicians, and researchers. Responsibility for collaboration lies with all stakeholder groups. Strategies to foster such partnerships should employ integrated knowledge translation approaches that actively engage all parties throughout the entire research to practice process.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Successful partnerships between cancer survivors, advocacy groups, clinicians, and researchers require familiarity with each other's expertise, along with sufficient resources and organizational structures. GU survivorship advocacy groups need to work more closely together to ensure a strong, unified voice when interacting with clinicians and researchers.
authors.affiliation: ELLICSR: Health, Wellness and Cancer Survivorship Centre, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, Clinical Services Building, BCS021, 200 Elizabeth Street, Toronto, ON, M5G 2C4, Canada.
authors.forename: Jacqueline L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wiljer
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matthew
authors.forename: Christina M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Canil
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Legere
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loblaw
authors.forename: Michael A S
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Jewett
mesh_terms: D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D014565:Urogenital Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology