JANE2 - Shaping the EU Networks of Expertise on cancer
Health networks, such as the Joint Action project on Networks of Expertise (JANE), are defined as networks involving regular collaboration at a distance among healthcare professionals. These networks focus on items pertaining to the mission of the network.
The two-year JANE project, initiated in October 2022 as part of the EU4Health Program and endorsed by the EU Commission, aligns with the EU’s Beating Cancer Plan to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients across Europe. JANE has been coordinated by Fondazione Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (FINT) in Milan and included 36 partners from 15 European countries. The project was organized into several work packages (WPs) and transversal task forces, with Oslo University Hospital (OUH) and Stein Kaasa leading WP6 on palliative care.
The mission of JANE was to perform preparatory activities needed to establish sustainable Networks of Excellence (NoE) on cancer to tackle the increasing number of cancer incidences and the higher demands for care in a steadily ageing European population. A final stakeholder meeting was held in Brussels 24-25 September, which included a presentation at the European Parliament.
A call for a four-year extension of JANE opened in 2023, and JANE2 was officially launched 1 November 2024. The JANE2 project focuses on sustainability, coordination between NoEs, information-technology infrastructures (including AI), and patient involvement. JANE2 has seven clinically oriented WPs and three WPs that focus more on administrative and overarching themes, e.g. sustainability, evaluation, and dissemination.
In JANE2, Oslo University Hospital (OUH) with Stein Kaasa as the lead, Marianne J. Hjermstad as Task Lead and Line Foss as coordinator, will continue its leadership of the palliative care NoE together with Augusto Caraceni from FINT, Italy. This WP6 consists of participants from 28 European countries and approximately 40 institutions. The main activities (conceptualized as Tasks) will focus on integrating palliative care and oncology, including i) defining, understanding, and adapting palliative care content to align its implementation with the diverse cultures, care levels and organizations (Task 1, led by Denmark); ii) development, testing and implementation of digital symptom assessment and management (Task 2, led by OUH); iii) education, competence and research (Task 3, led by Estonia), and iv) defining and harmonizing indicators of palliative care implementation (Task 4, led by Portugal). As palliative care is of high importance to several tumour groups, we are also contributing in JANE’s WP5 on Poor Prognosis (Olav Dajani) and WP7 on Survivorship care (Cecilie Kiserud), as well as in WP2 Dissemination, WP3 Evaluation and WP4 Sustainability. Furthermore, additional OUH employees are engaged in WP7, WP8, and WP9, given their expertise in different aspects of Governance,as well as in WP10 Omics.
Given the large transfer value between JANE2 WP6 and EUnetCCC (The European Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centers, formerly CRANE and led by OUH), forces were joined during the application process and will be continued throughout the lifetime of both projects. Moreover, external collaborations are in place with ERNs (European Reference Networks), EAPC and ESMO, to be supplemented by professional organisations (ECO, EONS and MASCC etc.), as well as patient and lay associations.
The organisation of JANE2 envisages a Network-in-Network structure, meaning that national, regional and local networks will be the means to disseminate and implement the Task results, i.e., pathways, guidelines, and recommendations to improve palliative care quality and increase access to the basic palliative care principles according to needs. Aligned with this, Oslo University Hospital has recently initiated a national Palliative Care/JANE network within Norway, formally through the four Regional Advisory Units for palliative care, to reinforce the Network-in-Network structure as part of JANE2 and to promote integration of palliative care in direct clinical care. These efforts are well aligned with the work in MATRIX WP3 (patient-centred care) and WP5 (healthcare implementation), headed by Stein Kaasa and Marianne J. Hjermstad, respectively. As the JANE2 budget has not been officially endorsed yet, we have so far announced two post-doctoral positions.
OUH JANE WP6 team: Stein Kaasa, Line Foss, Marianne J. Hjermstad
