:: Director Area Cancer Services
A/Professor Tom Shakespeare
Tom is a senior radiation oncologist who trained in three teaching hospitals in Sydney: Royal North Shore Hospital, Liverpool Hospital, and Westmead Hospital. He was also awarded funding for a Fellowship at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in IMRT for Head and Neck and Prostate cancers. Tom received the C.E. Eddy Prize for “Most outstanding candidate at the Part I exams”, and also obtained high distinction averages for his postgraduate degrees of Master of Public Health (specializing in Education with a thesis in CME and Audit for radiation oncologists), and Graduate Diploma in Medicine (Clinical Epidemiology).
Tom has worked in Sydney and Singapore, with his previous role as Head of Oncology at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore. In this role he helped triple cancer services for Western Singapore, with a population of two million. Tom has always been an advocate of health promotion to prevent cancer, as well as ensuring equitable access to oncology services. Tom has a desire to see basic oncology services reach all countries, and has been active in helping Cho Ray Hospital in Vietnam to provide radiation oncology services for their draining population of 40 million. Tom is also an auditor of third world radiation oncology departments for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He was recruited to his current position of Director of Area Cancer Services (DACS), Director of the North Coast Cancer Institute (NCCI), and Head, NCCI Department of Radiation Oncology in March 2005. Tom’s current role includes clinical, academic and leadership responsibilities.
He provides clinical care with a particular expertise in prostate, breast, lung and colorectal cancers, with a focus on 3D conformal radiotherapy and IMRT. Tom has a passion for involving patients in the decision-making process. He believes in ensuring patients are fully informed and managed in a holistic, caring manner, rather than being treated as a disease type.
Tom is an advocate of evidence-based multidisciplinary care, and is convening the NSW Cancer Institute Radiotherapy Protocols Program. Tom is also a member of the RANZCR Post-Fellowship Education Committee, and has been responsible for redesigning the RANZCR Revalidation / Maintenance of Certification Audit. Tom’s vision is that all radiation oncology patients treated within NCCI will be managed according to published evidence-based protocols, and that every patient simulated will be audited with the RANZCR Revalidation Audit Tool to ensure quality care.
Tom’s academic interests include research, and in particular health services research (which translates clinical research into individual patient care). Tom is a member of ASTRO’s Health Service Research Committee and is frequently invited to organize and chair ASTRO educational sessions at the ASM, as well as ASTRO workshops. He has over 100 peer reviewed publications and abstracts, has been awarded half a dozen research prizes, and is a reviewer for a number of oncology journals including IJROBP and Cancer. Tom is also an examiner for the RANZCR in statistics.
On the weekends, Tom spends time with his wife and children at Villa Azure (their mango farm on a mountain overlooking the Solitary Islands) quad bike riding, gardening and rearing butterflies and green tree frogs with TJ and Zac. Other activities he enjoys include beach fishing, body surfing, horse riding, white water rafting and fine dining (either BBQs or at one of the Coffs Coast’s many award-winning restaurants).
Welcome from Tom Shakespeare
Tom would like to extend to you an invitation to join the team. Applications are invited from enthusiastic, friendly and suitably qualified staff to join the North Coast Cancer Institute. These newly created positions offer unparalleled career opportunities for motivated people, as well as the enviable opportunity for you and your family to enjoy life in the most exciting and beautiful part of Australia. Like Tom and his family, you will never want to leave!