In the NHS, patient data is not all stored in one place or on one system and because of the size of the NHS, this information is very difficult to bring together. This means that the data for current and former cancer patients, who are not involved in clinical trials (approximately 80% of patients), is not contributing to developments in cancer research. With more than 375,000 people in the UK newly diagnosed with cancer each year, this is a huge unutilised resource that could make a real difference to treatment and care for patients.
We plan to share the records we hold for our cancer patients with Flatiron Health UK who will process these into usable collections of anonymised data and make them available to researchers to further their work.
For general enquiries, more information or to ask some questions before making your decision, you can contact us using the details below:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0113 206 0475
How will this benefit patients?
This partnership has the potential to improve the quality and efficiency of cancer care, and bring benefits for patients and the public.
- Enhanced patient care management
- High quality information reflecting real-world evidence which enables better advice on benefits and side-effects of treatments rather than that collected through a clinical trial in a more controlled environment and selective patient population.
- Support for patient follow ups
- Following initial management, patients remain under regular review for many years to detect cancer recurrence and the need for further treatment.
- While clinician-led review is appropriate in high-risk patients, patients at lower risk could more appropriately be reviewed by clinical nurse specialists or through patient-led review with support from administrative staff. This will free up consultant time for more complex cases.
- Critical to these follow-up pathways is the development of information that predicts the risk of recurrence over time and identifies suitable pathways of care.
- Identifying patients for clinical trials
- Flatiron information will enable a faster evaluation of patient eligibility and feasibility assessment for clinical trials, matching patients to trials faster. In many cases these clinical trials provide valuable and beneficial treatments for patients.
- Auditing and benchmarking of care
- Access to higher quality information will enable more comprehensive and effective assessment of care that has been delivered. This will identify areas for improvement and learnings more efficiently to help improve cancer services into the future.
Who are Flatiron Health UK?
Flatiron Health UK is a healthcare technology company that works with hospitals, patients, charities, and researchers in universities and the health industry. They aim to increase the availability, quality and use of cancer patient data to make a greater impact in cancer research and treatment. They initially started in the USA. They now work with cancer centres across the world and have a UK-based team to work with cancer centres in the NHS.
Find out more about Flatiron Health UK on their website.