Shared Digital Patient Tracking List
Shared Digital Patient Tracking List to support the delivery of Cancer Services
A shared Digital Patient Tracking List will improve consistency of data collection/interpretation, provide greater transparency as well as aid the often-complex process of Inter Provider transfers. A single view of each patient’s pathway will allow both cancer units and tertiary centres to better plan for the next stage in each pathway, and actions will be visible to all (concurrently) – providing an opportunity to considerably reduce the current administrative burden in individual trusts and prevent breaches in current cancer diagnosis pathways.
Contact Details
- Jennifer Connolly - Senior Consultant
- Edge Health
- [email protected]
Project Dates
Project Start 01/11/2022
Project End Ongoing
Programmes
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The Northen Cancer Alliance were keen to build on the collaboration between provider Trusts developed during the Covid pandemic to develop a shared digital PTL to enable a single view of patient pathways across Trusts to smooth transitions between sites, forecast patients at most risk of delay in their pathway and act to make best use of existing capacity and plan for spikes in demand.
The continued pressure as the system recovers from the pandemic has created challenges for Trusts to deliver timely access to cancer services (diagnostics and treatments). One area identified as a particular risk to meeting statutory waiting times is for patients who are transferred between hospitals. Analysis over the past few years has shown these patients are at a particularly high risk of breaching waiting times, even though they are often high-need patients (hence transfer). System-wide cancer tracking data is typically extracted weekly and available at an aggregate level, this is not responsive or detailed enough to support optimal cancer pathway management at the system level.
The Northern Cancer Alliance (NCA), North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust (NTH) and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust(STH), along with industry partners Edge Health have developed a bespoke shared cancer Patient Tracking List (PTL) hosted on a wrap-around AI-enabled cloud-based platform called CanCollaborate. CanCollaborate is a decision-support tool that simplifies the administration processes required for cancer pathways for Trusts and facilitates system working for cancer alliances and ICBs. The platform summarises pathway pressures across cancer specialities and enables users to identify the specific pathways at highest risk of breaching their 28-day diagnosis and 62-day treatment waiting targets.
After extensive prototyping to test the proof-of-concept, CanCollaborate has been rolled out across NTH and STH to test the functionality in a real-world setting. In addition to this the team will be looking to roll out CanCollaborate across the NENC ICB area, establishing near-real-time data pipeline across all Trusts in the ICB area.
CanCollaborate has the potential to reduce breaches of 62-day pathways by up to 60% based on initial modelling. Timely treatment of cancers is vital and a reduction in breaches can improve patient clinical outcomes. Reducing breaches also improves patient experience by streamlining patient pathways. Timely appointments can reduce stress for patients and their families. Using estimates from NHS Cancer Waiting Times data, in Q1 of 2023/24, 11,851 patients were seen in the NENC ICB on two week wait pathways. Scaling this up, it is estimated that a minimum of c. 47,000 patients would benefit from CanCollaborate each year.
CanCollaborate also helps Trusts and system partners coordinate. The demand forecasting tool can help staff identify capacity shortfalls and proactively deal with them, further reducing potential patient waiting time breaches.
HI NENC have provided various levels of support through the Innovation Pathway to enable the roll out of the Digital Patient Tracking List Tool including; Project Management, Legal Advice, Contracting and Procurement, Implementation and Funding.
The project team are looking to continue development and implementation of CanCollaborate for all Trusts in the NENC ICB area.
www.edgehealth.co.uk
Throughout this project, we worked closely with the Northern Cancer Alliance and North and South Tees to co-design CanCollaborate. This approach - developing a custom solution, with users involved every step of the way – enabled us to build a tool that meets the diverse needs of the many stakeholders involved in cancer pathway management. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the Alliance to expand the reach and functionality of CanCollaborate.