Mathematical modelling to improve pathways to cancer diagnosis v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mathematical modelling to improve pathways to breast cancer diagnosis at Whittington Hospital
IRAS ID
170090
Contact name
Christina Saville
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
13136 , ERGO ref
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 13 days
Research summary
Mathematical modelling to improve pathways to breast cancer diagnosis
The study’s purpose is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of breast cancer diagnostic services at the Whittington Hospital.
Objective 1 is to assess whether general practitioner [GP] referral notes can be used to predict both a patient’s risk level and which diagnostic tests the patient requires. This will involve using data mining techniques to make predictions.
Objective 2 is to recommend strategies to improve clinic efficiency to both meet the national target for GP appointment to referral time, and to reduce on-the-day waiting times. In this phase, samples of waiting and process times will be collected. Then a mathematical model will be built allowing different scenarios to be investigated.
Objective 3 is to provide insights into what factors affect which hospital a GP surgery refers their patients to for breast cancer services. Hospital episode statistics (HES) data will be analysed to understand what proportion of patients from each GP surgery are being referred to the Whittington Hospital for breast cancer services rather than neighbouring hospitals, and the factors affecting this choice.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1335
Date of REC Opinion
14 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion