A look back at the first year of the Somerset, Wiltshire, Avon and Gloucestershire (SWAG) Cancer Innovation Programme

In March 2024, the boards of the Somerset, Wiltshire, Avon and Gloucestershire (SWAG) Cancer Alliance, Health Innovation West of England and Health Innovation South West approved a new collaboration to accelerate the discovery, development, and deployment of innovations in local cancer services.

This collaboration was to fund a new joint post of Programme Manager for Cancer Innovation, along with relevant support, to establish and coordinate the delivery of a local Cancer Innovation Programme across the SWAG geography. The Programme Manager, Becky Clack came into post in July 2024.

The programme engages with local and national cancer teams to accelerate the adoption of innovation in response to local priorities, identifying proven innovations that are ready for local deployment and promising innovations suitable for further development and evaluation. The Health Innovation Network manages a pipeline of well-evidenced innovations ready for spread and adoption, along with promising innovations that need further evaluation and development.

This post is a dedicated role within Health Innovation West of England, benefitting from access to the wider capacity and capabilities of their team – including subject matter expertise in commercial due diligence, insight and evaluation, and in communications and engagement – and providing access to the established innovation ecosystem, which spans all local health service providers and ICBs, together with local universities and which operates a dynamic interface with innovators and industry.

The SWAG footprint covers the majority of Health Innovation West of England’s footprint (excluding Swindon) as well as Somerset, which is covered by Health Innovation South West, and therefore both networks are working together with SWAG Cancer Alliance to deliver this programme.

It was agreed at the commencement of the programme partnership that the scope of work would include the following activities, and since July significant progress has been made in these areas:

Developing links with local, regional, and national teams involved in the diagnosis of cancer to understand specific innovation needs.

• SWAG Cancer Alliance is now an active participant in the Cancer Innovation Community of Practice. This group, whose membership includes Cancer Alliances, the Health Innovation Network, Cancer Research UK, Macmillan, and the National Cancer Programme and focuses on expediting cancer innovation.
• We are also an active participant in the Health Innovation Network Cancer Pipeline Working Group, which aims to share learnings and innovation opportunities across England.
• Cancer innovation leads from the southern Cancer Alliances (SWAG, Peninsula, Surrey and Sussex, and Wessex) are meeting regularly.
• Becky Clack presented the work of SWAG at the National Cancer Alliance Early Diagnosis Share and Learn Event.
• We have worked with the Endoscopy Network to seek opportunities for collaboration and are in the process of doing the same for Imaging and Pathology.
• We are starting to map local innovation champions and activities across the SWAG footprint, with the aim of establishing an innovation share and learn group.

Identifying and comparing proven innovations that may improve early diagnosis.

We ran a successful innovation call and seven projects were selected for funding:

1. The evaluation of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to support prostate MRI reporting at the RUH.
2. A case-finding project using Capsule Sponge in primary care, to support the earlier diagnosis and monitoring of Barrett’s Oesophagus.
3. An assessment of the potential role and impact of introducing AI with GI Genius to support trainee and newly qualified endoscopists.
4. An evaluation of ColoMax to support the 28-day referral pathway for colorectal cancer diagnosis.
5. An evaluation of the use of a urine biomarker test for bladder cancer.
6. An assessment of the impact of the ‘Pi’ prostate MRI AI tool at Gloucestershire.
7. The use of CHiP Lite boxes to enable remote access to procedures for the training and remote supervision for endoscopy.

 Working with local cancer leads to agree on the adoption and spread of projects of selected innovations

This will be a growing area of focus over the next 12 months and will focus on identifying local innovation projects, which have evidence of impact and seeking to support wider adoption across the SWAGCA members and nationally.

We will also be seeking to match needs from within our region with evidence-based innovations used elsewhere to support assessment of suitability and rapid adoption via appropriate procurement processes. This work has started via the completion of horizon scans by the Health Innovation Network to identify promising innovations, which have been shared with clinical teams to explore suitability for further consideration.

Developing metrics to measure and monitor impact.

The co-developed innovation strategy has identified deliverables and metrics against which we will monitor this programme’s success and impacts, and we will be reporting against these deliverables on a quarterly basis. We have also agreed that all projects funded by SWAG Cancer Alliance should include evaluation to evidence return on investment and the impact of the innovation on patients, staff and the services, as well as support the development of business cases to support sustainability of the innovation adoption and allow ongoing funding, if successful.

Other key deliverables and successes

The following key deliverables have been achieved since July 2024.

• Successful recruitment of an experienced manager in July 2024 and rapid integration of the post into both the SWAG Cancer Alliance and Health Innovation West of England teams.
• Co-production of an innovation strategy, informed via consultation with Health Innovation West of England and SWAG Cancer Alliance stakeholders, along with inputs from wider regional stakeholders during workshops held at the Cancer Alliance annual conference in March, and wider engagement sessions.
• Delivery of a horizon scan for innovations to support Ambient Voice Technologies for use by multidisciplinary teams to reduce the burden of administration.
• Delivery of a horizon scan for innovations that may support earlier cancer case-finding in primary care.
• Health Innovation West of England’s Evaluation and Insights team supported scoping of the evaluation needs across three of the planned projects to inform procurement and project planning.
• 17 people from across SWAG Cancer Alliance, in both clinical and managerial roles, completed an Introduction to AI course, which will support the informed selection and assessment of AI-based cancer innovations going forward.