Cancer Screening Rates

About population cancer screening [1]

Population screening refers to a test that is offered to all individuals in a target group, usually defined by age (or gender), as part of an organised program.

A Population Based Screening Framework, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) principles of screening has been developed for Australia

The aim of the Screening Framework is to provide guidance for decision makers when considering potential population based screening programs in Australia.
Australian currently has population screening programs for breast, bowel and cervical cancer.

Visit the Department of Health website to find out more about the Population Based Screening Framework

How population screening is different

Population screening is different to diagnostic tests and risk-based assessment.

Diagnostic tests are done if you already have signs or symptoms of a disease. They confirm the presence or absence of disease.

Risk-based assessment uses tools such as the Familial Risk Assessment[2] (FRA-BOC).

FRA-BOC assesses a woman’s risk of breast or ovarian cancer based on her family history.

By using the FRA-BOC a physician may choose to:

  • refer a woman for further assessment who is outside of the age range of the population screening program
  • send a woman for assessment more frequently than is recommended under the population screening program
  • send a woman for more complex test than is used in the population screening program e.g. MRI

This website is no longer active but is available to browse as a resource.

Women’s Cancer Screening Collaborative (WCSC) 2017-2018

Through the delivery of structured, clinician-led general practice quality improvement and health literacy interventions, general practices worked towards increasing access to and equity of women’s cancer screening programs across the North Coast.

From January 2017 to July 2018, general practices improved clinical systems and data auditing processes to better identify and remind never or under-screened at-risk populations of women. Focus groups were also held with at-risk women to understand the environmental and individual barriers and motivators to screening. 

This WCSC website acted as an information repository for all WCSC developed content providing access to and sharing of quality improvement tools, change strategy resources and ideas.

WCSC evaluation and resources can be found on the North Coast Primary Health Network. 

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