Topic
Date published
01/08/2025
The HSJ Digital Awards, held last month at The ICC in Birmingham, celebrate the power of digital initiatives to transform patient care, improve access to services, and deliver more efficient, equitable healthcare.
The EMCA CPH was highly commended for its remote cancer psychology service with integrated digital innovations, with judges impressed by its impactful innovation and scalability.
Many people living with or beyond cancer experience impacts on psychosocial health, quality of life, functioning and broader health outcomes. Timely, accessible, and personalised psychosocial support can have a significant positive impact on a broad range of health and social aspects of life, as a way of addressing this key, long term need for people affected by cancer.
The EMCA CPH team developed and disseminated openly available web resources, along with personalised self-help smart-messaging programmes for common difficulties associated with cancer, including anxiety, low mood, sleep problems, nausea, and pain.
The service routinely monitors and evaluates how it is performing and has achieved excellent outcomes for patients with recovery rates, and is one of the top performing services in the country.
Dr James Rathbone, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Co-lead of the service said: “We are so delighted that our service has been highly commended for its work towards improving mental health for those living with and beyond cancer.
“We're honoured to have been recognised at the prestigious HSJ Digital Awards as we feel it is recognition of how we have successfully embedded the digital technology in a way that directly impacts patient care and outcomes.”
The team also train cancer care staff in psychological screening and intervention skills supported with ongoing supervision. Where more severe or complex difficulties are identified, they provide specialist psychological therapy.
One service user commented: “I have gained so much from the sessions with [psychologist]. I was really impressed with the waiting times for therapy and felt really listened to in terms of what I needed and what therapeutic approach might be helpful. The whole experience has been great and I can't quite believe the difference it has made to my overall well-being.”
The service monitors and addresses where patients may not have access to digital technology and works collaboratively with locally provided services to ensure patients are still able to receive support.
Becky Sutton, Chief Operating Officer at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The East Midlands Cancer Alliance Centre for Psychosocial Health team work really hard, ensuring patients get the mental health support they need during a really difficult time.”
For more information about the awards, visit: https://digitalawards.hsj.co.uk.