Oncology software successfully piloted at Newcastle trust is rolled out to 47 specialist cancer centres
NHS Supply Chain has supported the pilot of the Elekta ProKnow cloud-based software solution and now ordered licences for 50 NHS trust hospitals over three years as well as education and training. It follows an extensive phase of provider testing that enabled more than 20 radiotherapy centres in England to access, test and assess the system using anonymised data.
The software was selected due to its capability to improve treatment plan quality and outcomes.
Elekta’s chief product officer Maurits Wolleswinkel said: “By offering ProKnow to its workforce, the NHS is enabling unique capabilities for data management, evaluation of patient treatment strategies, and plan review tasks across its network of hospitals and clinics. It demonstrates the strength of ProKnow’s cloud-based, vendor neutral platform as it can be used with internet access through a browser by radiation therapy departments anywhere, regardless of their linac manufacturer, treatment planning system or oncology information solution.”
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been pivotal in trialling the software over the last two years. Some trusts have found ways to support consultant peer review of treatments across hospital sites, some of which can make a peer to peer review more manual and time consuming.
The software allows trusts to evaluate details with peers securely, sharing pathology reports, live videos and insights. It can also be used to support local audit and improvement in treatment plan quality and, through its use, anonymised dosimetry data will form the basis of national comparative quality audits, in line with clinical priorities.
Deputy head of radiotherapy for Northern Cancer Care, Newcastle, John Byrne commented: “ProKnow is expected to enable expansion of peer review of treatment intention and enable analysis of large datasets of radiotherapy treatments to measure and refine the quality of what is already a very successful cancer treatment. As more radiotherapy centres are connected in this way, learning will increase greatly.”
Published on page 24 of the May 2022 issue of RAD Magazine.