Cancer services are celebrating after being named overall winner at the national Health Tech Awards last Thursday (10 October).

Over 150 NHS leaders from a variety of care settings and backgrounds judged the awards and shortlisted over 100 projects for 14 categories. The Royal Devon team secured overall winner for their project, which aimed to improve care for cancer patients across Northern and Eastern Devon.

The project used MY CARE, (the secure digital platform that allows patients to see information about their Royal Devon care), to empower patients to give information and share any worries or concerns with their care team through a Lifestyle and Wellbeing tool. This has made it possible to give more personalised care and support to each patient.

Cancer services engaged with patients throughout the project to make sure that developments were tailored to their needs.

The team took a Trust-wide approach, so that all nine Royal Devon cancer sites use the same digitally-led process with a paper-based option for those patients who prefer not to use digital.

The team are now looking at how they can share their learning within the Peninsula Cancer Alliance and how other parts of the patient journey can be improved using digital solutions.

Holly Conway, Personalised Care and Support Manager said: “This is a fantastic achievement and showcases our joined-up approach to improve patient care and experience.”

Maria Bracey, Macmillan Clinical Lead Personalised Care and Support said: “We’d like to give a special mention to the Clinical Digital team who enabled the build of the new tool in MY CARE and especially Justin Chapman, who worked with us on this project.”

Sam Higginson, Chief Executive Officer said, “This is a huge achievement. It showcases how we are using innovative digital technology to continuously improve services for patients. Well done to Cancer Services and everyone involved”.

Find out more about the Health Tech Awards.