Health Professionals

Information for Health Professionals

Hospital staff play a crucial role in the ongoing development of the HSA Biobank. 

Doctors and nurses in participating hospitals (Prince of Wales Hospital, Royal Hospital for Women, Prince of Wales Private Hospital and St George Hospital) may be involved in consenting of patients to the HSA Biobank. This involves giving the patient information brochure and consent form to your patient, answering any questions, asking them to complete the consent form, and leaving the signed consent form in the patient's medical record.

What is My Role in the HSA Biobank?

If you are asked to be involved in the HSA Biobank, your involvement will depend on your area of professional expertise.

Hospital staff who are likely to be approached to participate include:

  • Surgical, haematology, and oncology teams will seek patient consent for the HSA Biobank during the patient’s routine pre- or post-surgical consultation or hospital admission.
  • Anatomical pathology technicians at SEALS Pathology will work with the diagnostic anatomical pathologists to allocate eligible tumour tissue samples for biobanking.
  • Peri-operative and admissions staff may manage patient consent forms, ensuring that the consent form is included in the patient's medical record. 
  • Medical Records staff will manage the signed consent forms, separating the carbon copies and saving one copy for the HSA Biobank and another for the patient's medical record.
Not all surgical groups are necessarily involved from the start - participating tumour streams have been selected gradually to be involved. The goal is that eventually all groups will take part.


Why Should I Get Involved with the HSA Biobank?

By contributing to the development of the HSA Biobank, you'll be helping to build a valuable resource that contributes to improved health outcomes for cancer patients across Australia.

The HSA Biobank will: 

  • provide clinicians and researchers with a large and ongoing resource to address important research questions
  • support high quality research that can lead to improvements in patient care and treatment outcomes
  • ensure that valuable specimens that would otherwise be archived are used for the benefit of the community
  • enhance the profile of participating hospitals which can attract funding and a high quality workforce
  • provide patients with an opportunity to contribute to research at minimal effort.

Need Information About the HSA Biobank?

Please contact the TCRN if you have any questions about how to get involved with the HSA Biobank.

Tel.: +61 2 9385 1395