Overview

Client: NHS GG&C

Sector: Public

Services: Low-Code App Development & Support

Technology: Microsoft Power Platform

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Introduction

The West of Scotland Cancer Network (WoSCAN) manage the development of patient cancer care through Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs). The teams achieve the best outcomes for patients through treatment and support. The coordination of these meetings and management of decisions was a highly manual process with quality issues and limited visibility of activities outside of meetings. Funded by WoSCAN, and led principally by eHealth and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board (NHS GGC), the initiative was created to develop a modern solution that would present benefits to clinical and care teams, and for the patients themselves. Sword were engaged to design and implement a modern app, that would deliver more efficient and effective MDTs.

Challenge

The process for cancer pathways and the coordination of MDT meetings is crucial for providing optimal care to patients and faces hurdles due to the complexity of managing multiple disciplines and collating accurate information to ensure the right cases are discussed with a trusted and complete set of data in place. NHS GGC required a streamlined approach to facilitate improved decision-making for treatments. By engaging Sword to develop their MDT Cancer Referral app, the team at NHS GGC aimed to create a solution that could manage all cancers, ensuring a standardised, efficient, and more effective approach to patient care.

Solution

Creating an affordable, intuitive, and sustainable MDT management solution was the primary goal for NHS GGC – and one shared by Sword as a key Public Sector partner. By understanding the requirements of NHS GGC, Sword worked to meet the challenge of developing a solution using Microsoft Cloud capabilities already available, advising on technical and capability limitations, and guiding key decision-making. The solution provides a cost-effective system that empowers healthcare professionals with an intuitive interface, simplifying the management of cancer referrals and facilitating collaborative decision-making on the basis of trusted clinical data. It has been recognised with a prestigious ‘Celebrating success excellence’ award.

To ensure a scalable and manageable solution, Sword maximised the use of Microsoft 365, SQL, and Power Platform capabilities, allowing the solution to be based on a standardised and easy-to-manage platform. Sword implemented a highly collaborative and adaptable delivery approach through our Agile DevOps framework

Results

Healthcare professionals and patients have seen the transformative impact of Sword’s MDT Cancer Referral App. Kevin Burton, again, noted that “The MDT app has provided an innovative solution to work across traditional health service barriers, providing an easy to access referral app that can then take that referral seamlessly through to an outcome that standardises input and outputs for the referral.“

In more practical terms, the number of cases requiring a full discussion has reduced by a third as a result of more accurate data. Meetings are more likely to reach a positive outcome with clearly assigned actions and ownership due to easier management of pre-meeting workloads and smarter task allocation, all cases now having proper radiology reviews undertaken in advance. The solution reduces administrative burden and increases immediate access to data flowing out of the MDT meetings as outputs can be sent directly to electronic patient records, and distributed immediately to primary and secondary care providers to advance patient care plans.

Future Expansion and Sustainability

The MDT Cancer Referral App has already been scaled out to meet the needs of two new cancer areas – head and neck, and the newly formed molecular tumour board. With its scalable design, the solution can accommodate the growing needs of NHS GGC and regional health partners, potentially extending to other healthcare organisations across Scotland and beyond.