Innovation in practice
LIFE-CHANGING INNOVATION, AT HOME AND ABROAD Icon Group is working at the vanguard of the healthcare sector to improve the quality of life and treatment outcomes of people with cancer – wherever they are.
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nnovative organisations identify areas where “the way things are done” could be improved, and then, by improving them, create a better status quo for everyone. A model case is Icon Group, which is changing the face of cancer care both in Australia and, increasingly, overseas – and improving countless lives in the process. The Brisbane-headquartered Group was established in 2015, via the consolidation of several organisations that had amassed deep experience in the cancer care space over several decades. With sure-handed CEO Mark Middleton at the helm, it has risen quickly to its current position as Australia’s largest provider of dedicated cancer care services. The organisation is animated by a simple utilitarian proposition: that people, no matter where they live, should have access to world-class cancer care when they need it. To that end, Icon’s core competency is creating integrated, state-of-the-art cancer care centres that offer patients bespoke, end-to-end cancer treatment – all under the one roof. The Group currently operates 47 such centres across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, and more are in development as it steadily expands its footprint domestically and abroad. Icon caters to the full range of patients’ needs, giving access to multidisciplinary cancer specialists; health screening, radiation oncology, haematology, and infusion services; and chemotherapy compounding and pharmacy services. The Group also administers extensive research, training and education programs, including Australia’s largest cancer clinical trials program. Icon’s operational model is powered by a highly interconnected global network of clinical leaders and specialists – and, crucially, the efficient sharing of knowledge across this network.
State of our Innovation Nation: 2023 and Beyond
By leveraging clinical talent across the network and virtually applying it in regional, remote, and overseas locations where it is hard to attract specialist skills, the Group ensures patients get the benefit of “the best eyes” planning and virtually assisting in their treatment – and that patients receive the same high-level care whether they are in regional China or, say, Sydney. It also means Icon staff are continually upskilled by “the best of the best” in cancer care. This model has helped Icon to excel at addressing unmet needs. Many of its domestic cancer centres are in regional communities – Warrnambool, Mackay, and Toowoomba, for instance – where the demand for cancer care has historically exceeded the local supply of the relevant services. Icon’s egalitarian approach has improved the quality of life and treatment outcomes of rural and regional patients who had previously been forced to invest significant time, money, and energy into travelling to and from metropolitan centres to access the care they needed. The Toowoomba centre, for example, has saved over 51 million kilometres in travel for patients who had formerly been accessing care in Brisbane, a 300-kilometre round trip away. Icon has found great success in exporting its proven model overseas – in particular to Asia, where the incidence of cancer is rising along with an ageing population. It currently operates nine cancer care centres in Singapore, along with three in Hong Kong, one in New Zealand, and four in Mainland China, and it has built fruitful partnerships with local organisations in Vietnam. The organisation is well positioned to ramp up its overseas operations further. Innovation provides the greatest social value when it addresses problems that affect society in general – and so the realisation of Icon Group’s vision of broad geographic access to best-in-class cancer care is an unequivocal good-news story.
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