Working out what to measure: Melanoma services

Abstract

This article reports on a process to identify a priority set of indicators to measure the performance of services for melanoma, outlined in the Australian Cancer Network’s Guidelines for the Management of Cutaneous Melanoma published in June 1997. Melanoma is a major cause of morbidity in NSW. In 1998, the year for which there is the most recently available data, it was the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in NSW residents, with 1565 cases diagnosed in males and 1119 in females; accounting for 362 deaths, three per cent of all deaths caused by cancer.