Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust has issued a preliminary market engagement notice for a cancer management system, looking to understand available options and inform the development of a procurement strategy.
The procured solution will be used to support end-to-end management of cancer pathways, covering patient tracking, MDT coordination, pathway management, treatment planning, and data integration.
According to the notice, the trust is seeking to ensure the resulting specification reflects current best practice and innovation in cancer care management technologies, with interested suppliers invited to a “demonstration phase” aimed at reviewing system capabilities and alignment with organisational needs. During this process, interoperability, core functionalities, and system architecture will be reviewed.
Functionality should include the ability to capture and report on personalised care, and to support the management of patients through remote monitoring, the trust explains. The system should also be capable of importing and exporting records to and from clinical systems such as radiology and patient administration systems, and fulfilling reporting and auditing requirements including Weekly Cancer PTL and the Cancer Waiting Times dataset.
The contract is estimated to run from April 2027 to March 2030, with a possible extension to March 2032 meaning an overall contract length of five years.
Potential suppliers interested in taking part in the demonstration phase are asked to express their interest by 5pm on 22 May, with the engagement deadline given as 30 June 2026.
Wider trend: Transforming cancer care
The UK Government has published its National Cancer Plan for England, backed by billions of pounds worth of investments in areas such as digital diagnostics, and informed by almost 12,000 responses to an earlier call for evidence from individuals and organisations. By 2035, half a million procedures will use robotic surgery, it suggests. AI tools such as Ambient Voice will help reduce staff time lost to admin tasks, and AI will assist oncologists in planning radiotherapy “more quickly and accurately”, with recommendations from a GIRFT study into maximising productivity in radiotherapy services to be implemented as soon as it is published.
A national cancer prehabilitation programme being rolled out by the Scottish government in collaboration with Macmillan Cancer Support and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, is to use digital resources as part of support offered to patients before and during their cancer treatment. The new cancer prehabilitation screening pathway is “designed to fit around people’s lives”, the Centre for Sustainable Delivery states, delivering support at home or in the community, as well as digitally with online resources and remote support. This approach is designed to minimise unnecessary hospital visits and allow people to benefit from support provided in “familiar and convenient” settings, it adds.
Airedale NHS Foundation Trust is using robotic process automation (RPA) to support the prostate cancer pathway, sending a text to patients due to come in for blood tests and then updating them with results via text, removing the need for a clinical appointment. RPA identifies from waiting lists when patients are due to come in for a PSA test, taking into account differing follow-up times depending on factors such as whether they have had surgery or radiotherapy. According to the trust, the automation is also capable of identifying when a result is within normal range for each individual person, sending them a text message with results within 24 hours. Where results are outside of the normal range, the automation flags patients for a review by the clinical team.
