The Department of Health and Social Care has announced a centralised system for cancer patients, built into the Federated Data Platform, the tool is said to bring cancer patient information together.
The Cancer 360 tool collates data points across tests, appointments and treatments, displayed via a dashboard. DHSC highlights how this will help “track a patient’s progress and support personalised treatment plans”.
Suraiya Abdi, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Trust, noted how the introduction of the tool at the trust had enabled the monitoring of patients throughout their cancer pathway, promoting “in-depth” conversations about next steps and reducing admin times, adding: “I have witnessed an improvement in performance, team spirit and most importantly patient experience.”
As the Cancer 360 tool is expanded across more hospitals nationwide, “meaningful improvements in both treatment times and patient experience” are expected, the NHS’s national clinical transformation director, Vin Diwakar stated.
Tech in helping to transform cancer care
In February, the UK government announced £82.6 million in research funding for three projects, two of which are using emerging technologies such as AI to tackle cancer. The government has also made a commitment to provide researchers with access to “cutting-edge computing resources” to help harness “the power of AI”. PharosAI, a project seeking to bring together NHS and Biobank data onto a “unified, powerful, secure, AIplatform”, is to receive £18.9 million from the government, along with a further £24.7 million in co-investment. Bind Research has also received £12.9 million in government funding, alongside a further £12.9 million in co-investment, for its use of AI to “learn the rules of drugging currently undruggable proteins”, opening up new hopes of curing diseases “once thought to be untreatable”.
NHS England confirmed a two-year extension worth up to £36 million for its national breast screening system IT software platform, which has been delivered by Hitachi Digital Services UK Limited since 2015. The extension means the contract will now run to 31 May 2027. NHSE notes that the screening platform is “critical” to the provision of breast screening services, providing the ability to make bookings and onward referrals, with the notice highlighting the system is “extremely complex”. Justification for the new contract award is noted on the basis that there are no reasonable alternatives for the provision of this service.
The Department of Health and Social Care called for “expert ideas and evidence” to support the development of the national cancer plan for England, inviting comments and feedback on questions across prevention, access, early diagnosis, treatment, research and innovation. Focusing on maximising impact using the most up-to-date tech and innovations, the DHSC also noted intentions to empower patients by offering more control over their own care, and to improve communications to support patients in making decisions about their diagnosis and treatment.
