Design and evaluation of a coordinated diagnostic pathway for lung cancer in outer metropolitan Melbourne

Lung cancer diagnosis is often delayed due to fragmented referral pathways, limited coordination and variable access to diagnostic services.

This project aims to design a coordinated, digitally enabled diagnostic pathway for suspected lung cancer at Werribee Mercy Hospital. The focus will be on developing electronic clinical navigation and audit infrastructure to support standardised triage, tracking and multidisciplinary coordination. The goal is improving visibility of the diagnostic pathway, reducing system fragmentation and having a scalable model for evaluating and improving timeliness of care.

The Fellowship will strengthen my capability in health services research, implementation science and rigorous program evaluation. It will provide structured mentorship and methodological support to translate clinical service problems into measurable, system-level interventions. For Mercy Health, it will build internal capacity to design and evaluate digital workflow tools that support clinical navigation and audit. This will enable more consistent, data-driven service improvement and strengthen the organisation’s ability to develop scalable models of care.