Three projects have secured funding through the second round of the Cancer Innovation Award Scheme which aims to promote improvement and innovation in cancer services.
After its success in 2022, the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN’s South Yorkshire Innovation Hub once again supported the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance to deliver this innovative scheme. The awards are designed to support initiatives aligned with the objectives set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, in particular around improved access to diagnostics, reducing health inequalities and personalised care and support.
Sarah Dew, Programme Director of the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN’s South Yorkshire Innovation Hub, commented: “The South Yorkshire Innovation Hub supports the South Yorkshire Integrated Care System to identify unmet needs where innovative approaches could help to better serve the needs of the population and helps to test and implement these innovations.
It’s fantastic to be working with the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance on this innovation award programme building on from last year’s success. The funding will support innovations that aims to improve access to cancer services for all as well as improving cancer diagnosis and patient experience.
We have received some outstanding applications and it has not been an easy task to choose this year’s winners. We are looking forward to seeing the outcomes of these initiatives to help improve cancer care for patients in our region”.
Dr Stephanie Edgar, GP and clinical lead from South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance, said: “We had some really tough competition this year with entries from across the system. We want to say a massive well done to the three winning projects. All three of the successful innovative schemes will help benefit patients from a range of backgrounds in achieving earlier cancer diagnosis and supporting those living with cancer in our region. We’re looking forward to seeing the outcomes of these improvement plans.”
Find out more about the winners of this year’s Cancer Innovation Award Scheme:
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
People with severe mental illness are more likely to not participate in healthcare screening programmes. Some studies suggest that in particular adults with severe mental health problems are more likely to die from cancer under the age of 75 than people without mental health illness. The funding will be used to run coproduction sessions working in collaboration with community organisations and people experiencing mental health problems using a range of assets including arts, lived experience and self-help methodologies. The project will explore the understanding and fear surrounding illness, medical care and screening. It will then develop culturally appropriate tools to increase the uptake of cancer screening at an earlier stage resulting in earlier diagnosis and treatment and reduced morbidity and mortality.
Weston Park Cancer Centre, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Weston Park Cancer Centre at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is working with patients, their relatives and clinicians to develop a novel web-based assessment tool for patients to support routine care and management and to evaluate outcomes and late effects following pelvic radiotherapy: ePAQ-P-Rx (electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire – Pelvic Radiotherapy).
Sheffield Children’s Hospital and NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Cooperative
Sheffield Children Hospital is working with NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Cooperative to develop supportive technologies to improve patient healthcare journey and experience. They have identified Xploro as a clinically validated health information platform that already supports young cancer patients through the use of 3D avatars, augmented reality models and games. Funding will help to develop a novel ‘proof of concept’ module for the platform that enables physiotherapists to prescribe personalised exercises to children and young people following a cancer diagnosis.
