Yanping Zhang is not a doctor. But her contribution to breast cancer research in the ACT has potentially helped save lives and improve outcomes for the thousands of ACT women and handful of men who have been diagnosed with the disease over the past 15 years.
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Ms Zhang has used her prowess in data management to help compile what is probably one of the world's most comprehensive and longest-running studies of breast cancer treatments and outcomes in a population.
In health, research and breast cancer circles, her reputation is legendary.
For 15 years, Ms Zhang has collected detailed medical data on almost every breast cancer case in the ACT. With the voluntary co-operation of 250 clinicians, more than 900 GPs and more than 5000 cancer sufferers, her data set encapsulates details on 96 per cent of breast cancer cases in the ACT and surrounding region - unheard of in other population studies.
Her tenacity is well known, and few doctors have resisted her energy, enthusiasm and obvious emotional connection to her subject. ''It is an honour for me to work on this project as maybe I can help improve the breast cancer patient's quality of life,'' she said.
The data - compiled into a 10-year report, with the 15-year report due to be published next year - has been presented at 51 national and international conferences and published in eight academic journals.
But for the sufferers themselves, such detailed tracking of the disease, its treatment and outcomes has helped contribute to the ACT's higher than average survival rates and advances in treatment.
According to leading oncologist Dr Paul Craft, Ms Zhang's meticulous tracking of patients and her decision to provide every doctor with personal feedback on their cases, has led to best practice and treatment advances being adopted in the ACT earlier than anywhere else.
''Yanping has provided amazing zeal and enthusiasm over a long time, and helped keep all of us enthusiastic about the project, while also allowing us to identify trends in treatment and improve our outcomes'' Dr Craft said.
Chairman of Cancer Epidemiology and Population Health at the University of South Australia Professor David Roder said the international importance of the project could not be underestimated.
''The ACT may have the highest incidence of breast cancer, but the treatment that follows each diagnosis is excellent and you have as good a monitoring system in the world with Yanping and her team crawling all over the quality of care.
''She has a meticulous approach, she treats the project like her child. When most people think of Canberra they think of Parliament House, but I think of this world-class group and what they are contributing to breast cancer treatment around the world.''
Ms Zhang is so devoted to her work in a small office of meticulously filed medical data within the ACT Health building that she has had to make a conscious effort to find more balance in her life rather than spend 20-hour days in front of the computer.
''Sometimes I work day and night.''
Not only has she created her own database, but she has written a 200-page manual on how to operate it.
Following her husband and Australian National University Professor Zhongwei Zhao - himself a population health expert - to Canberra in 1997 from their home in Beijing, Ms Zhang had previously worked on randomised clinical trials at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge and the National Health and Medical Research Council in Sydney.
A one-year contract job came up in ACT Health to manage the breast cancer treatment quality assurance project. Ms Zhang stayed on, transforming a data set on how the ACT managed its breast cancer treatment in line with national standards into something far more valuable.
''I feel a responsibility to work so hard to the women and men who have breast cancer and their families,'' she said. ''I have confidence we will see a cure. I want to keep working until that happens.''