The Noemi Fisman Award for Lifetime Clinical Excellence honours an IPOS or psycho-oncology community member in recognition of outstanding clinical contributions to the field of psycho-oncology. They must have served for a major proportion of their career as a clinician and be able to demonstrate novel, beneficial and substantial initiatives impacting directly on the care of patients and his/her families either through their own practice or practice developments.

Dr. Jefford has built an outstanding career over more than twenty years in clinical psycho-oncology and survivorship care, distinguished further by his contributions to research and education. As Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and inaugural Director of the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre (ACSC), he has led transformative initiatives that centre psychosocial wellbeing and holistic survivorship care. His early work included pioneering research on depression screening in oncology and palliative care. He has held major leadership roles across IPOS, COSA, MASCC, ASCO, and Cancer Council Victoria. Through these roles, he has advanced communication training, survivorship models, and shaped national policy. Dr. Jefford has published more than 280 papers and 11 book chapters, and has defined unmet needs, quality of life outcomes, and intervention strategies for diverse survivor populations. He has built national survivorship education programs, producing more than 50 multilingual resources and ACSC training has reached over 26,000 health professionals. As founder and inaugural Chair of the IPOS Survivorship SIG, he enabled influential international studies. A dedicated mentor and widely invited speaker, he has shaped global survivorship discourse and is regarded as a highly deserving candidate for the Noemi Fisman Award.

This award will be presented at the 2026 IPOS World Congress of Psycho-Oncology. 

Congratulations! Read more by going to https://ipos-society.org/awards/winners