Team of the Year award for transformative remote monitoring service helping thousands of prostate cancer patients

Dr Pooja Iyer, Clinical Oncologist, Amy Watson, Deputy Operational Manager, Sweety Thengazhikathu, Uro-Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist, Lisa Brown and James Montgomery, ACP Support Secretaries, Dr Omar Din, Clinical Director/Clinical Oncologist with their award outside Weston Park Cancer Centre.

placeholder image — Dr Pooja Iyer, Clinical Oncologist, Amy Watson, Deputy Operational Manager, Sweety Thengazhikathu, Uro-Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist, Lisa Brown and James Montgomery, ACP Support Secretaries, Dr Omar Din, Clinical Director/Clinical Oncologist with their award outside Weston Park Cancer Centre.

Weston Park Cancer Centre’s radiotherapy remote monitoring team have won the British Association of Urological Nurses’ Urology Team of the Year award.

The top national award was given in recognition of a new remote monitoring service and nurse-led escalation clinic which is transforming care for prostate cancer patients on follow-up care after intensive radiotherapy treatment.

The service – which aligns with the NHS Ten Year Health Plan to bring care close to where patients are – enables patients to be reviewed and contacted promptly using remote technologies without the need for a routine hospital appointment.

Short questionnaires track health data in real time along with Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test results.

Sweety Thengazhikathu, Uro-Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist and Diane Leach, Uro-Oncology ACP present the team’s remote monitoring work.

So far, 1,900 patients have moved from traditional, hospital-based prostate cancer follow-up to the remote monitoring pathway.

Patients on the pathway receive timely interventions for side effects, psychological support, patient education, self-management, health management, rehabilitation, and treatment adherence from the convenience of their own homes - all whilst still under the care of the specialist, expert team.

This allows them to access faster, more convenient care, reducing anxiety and enabling them to access results without the worry and time of a hospital trip.

The initiative has also translated into real benefits for other patients through the release of a significant number of hospital appointment slots. This has freed up vital NHS resource and reduced waiting times.

As a result, other patients can now access consultant-led urological cancer care faster than they would have otherwise - including those who do need to be seen by a consultant in hospital.

Sweety Thengazhikathu, Uro Oncology clinical nurse specialist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“Remote monitoring, managed by the specialist expertise of our team, is transforming care for thousands of prostate cancer patients in our region by allowing them to access faster, more convenient care, reducing anxiety and enabling them to access results without the worry and time of a hospital trip.”

Dr Omar Din, Uro-Oncology clinical lead at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“This service has had a massive impact. For the 1,900 patients currently on follow up, they receive their results and support in a more much more timely manner. Another additional benefit is that it has assisted patients in the wider regional uro-oncology service who are now able to access consultant-led care faster than they would have otherwise.”