As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, people between the ages of 55 and 75 who have ever smoked are being invited for a lung health check, with the aim of detecting cancer at an early stage and saving lives.
More than one million people have been invited for a lung cancer check, as part of the biggest programme to improve early lung cancer diagnosis in health service history.
Over 2,400 cancers have already been caught through the programme with around three-quarters caught at the earliest stages of one and two, where treatment is more effective.
Newcastle Hospitals commercial team partnered with STCS to offer a solution to support the participant through the full programme pathway.
TLHC Manager was designed and developed in conjunction with the Newcastle Gateshead TLHC programme, the largest phase 1 pilot site.
The TLHC Manager system manages participants through the key stages of the programme, key functionality includes:
- scheduling face to face or virtual appointments for initial lung health screening
- automated SMS appointment reminders
- automatic calculation of risk scores
- scheduling of low dose CT appointments
- flagging and prioritising scans for review
- allows outcomes to be recorded
- automatic creation of correspondence (letters / referrals)
It is being used by the Northern Cancer Alliance and the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust to deliver their programmes.
The system is looking at future initiatives such as inviting those who have become eligible through age, and reinventing participants who did not originally wish to participate or were ineligible for a scan.
Modular versions of the system can also be made available for use by programmes who outsource parts of their pathway.
