News
My Clinical Outcomes Shares Nomination for the “Best in Health Outcomes” Awards with HCA Healthcare UK at the LaingBuisson Awards 2024
October 2024
My Clinical Outcomes is thrilled to share this nomination for the “Best in Healthcare Outcomes” awards at the LaingBuisson Awards 2024 on 21st November 2024 with our partner, HCA Healthcare UK.
It is fantastic recognition of the hard work of all involved since MCO went live across HCA just over a year ago.
As Dr Cliff Bucknall, Chief Medical Officer at HCA UK, said at the time, “Patient-reported outcomes are integral to the care we offer at HCA Healthcare UK. Health care that works responsively to a patient’s lived experience, that adapts to their needs, is a system that truly has the patient at the centre.”
HCA UK have fully technically integrated MCO into the care pathway meaning that patients are seamlessly and automatically onboarded to be asked the right combinations of PROMs assessments according to their condition, treatment, and stage of treatment, and with their care team having immediate and real-time access to the results. This approach has allowed the scope of conditions and procedures covered to accelerate and now far exceeds core Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) requirements PROMs.
We wish all nominees the very best of luck for the evening and look forward to sharing more progress on what is being achieved in the coming months.
My Clinical Outcomes Joins UK Government's G-Cloud 14 Framework
18th October 2024
We are excited to announce that My Clinical Outcomes (MCO) is now an approved supplier on the UK Government’s G-Cloud 14 Framework.
The G-Cloud 14 Framework, managed by the UK’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS), is an online procurement platform designed to streamline the process for UK public sector organisations, such as NHS Trusts, to find and purchase cloud-based services. The G-Cloud Framework includes pre-approved suppliers offering services such as hosting, software and cloud support. All services are pre-vetted and the platform simplifies and speeds up the purchasing process, ensuring quality, compliance, and a range of competitive options.
By being a part of the G-Cloud Framework, public sector buyers can seamlessly discover and procure MCO’s services and digital solution, whilst having the confidence that MCO meets CCS standards for quality and compliance.
My Clinical Outcomes Enters Partnership with Genesis Care UK
July 2024
My Clinical Outcomes is delighted to have entered a new partnership with Genesis Care UK.
Genesis Care are the UK's leading independent specialist cancer care provider and are transforming cancer care with advanced diagnostics, medical oncology, radiotherapy and Theranostics, to achieve the best possible life outcomes for patients.
MCO will initially be made available to support the care of patients receiving chemotherapy and who are undergoing MR linac therapy. MRL technology combines high resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning techniques with powerful radiotherapy beams to treat tumours more accurately than conventional radiotherapy.
My Clinical Outcomes Enters Partnership with Horder Healthcare
24th May
My Clinical Outcomes is delighted to have entered a new partnership with Horder Healthcare.
Horder Healthcare is a dynamic independent charity, providing the highest level of care and safety for patients and driving innovation within their services. MCO will begin working with 2 locations, The Horder Centre, which is a specialist hospital for orthopaedic surgery, and The Mcindoe Centre, which is a private specialist centre for plastic and reconstructive surgery.
MCO will be working with Horder Healthcare to capture patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and sending PROMs data to NHS England and the Private Health Information Network (PHIN) for regulatory requirements.
MCO Attains Cyber Essentials Certificate
18th April 2024
My Clinical Outcomes has again achieved Cyber Essentials Plus certification with zero non-conformities.
We are proud of our Cyber Essentials Plus badge, which demonstrates our commitment to operational cyber security and data safeguarding.
Cyber essentials Plus is the highest level of certification under the Government-backed Cyber Essentials scheme, that aims to protect organisations against cyber-attacks. It involves independent verification by a Certification Body.
More information about the Cyber Essentials scheme can be found on the website.
My Clinical Outcomes Enters Partnership with Spencer Private Hospitals
24th March 2024
My Clinical Outcomes is delighted to have entered a new partnership with Spencer Private Hospitals.
Spencer Private Hospitals, in Ashford, Canterbury and Margate, offer well over 200 private treatments and surgeries, delivering high quality private healthcare services in East Kent.
MCO will be supporting Spencer Private Hospitals’s journey to move towards a digital collection of patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) in routine clinical practice, which will speed up the opportunity for patients to update on their outcomes without the need for pen and paper.
MCO will also support Spencer Private Hospitals to submit some surgical procedures PROMs data to NHS England and the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) for regulatory requirements.
More information about PROMs collection can be found on Spencer Private Hospitals’ website.
My Clinical Outcomes Shortlisted for the ‘Healthcare Technology Provider of the Year‘ Award
16th February 2024
MCO is proud to have been shortlisted for the ‘Healthcare Technology Provider of the Year’ award at the upcoming HealthInvestor Awards in June 2024.
The awards aim to recognise innovation in the independent healthcare sector and those who have made an outstanding contribution to healthcare.
Over the past year, MCO has proudly entered new partnerships with some of the largest healthcare providers in the UK, facilitating the implementation of PROMs to improve clinical outcomes and streamline data capture processes.
For further details about this prestigious award, please visit the HealthInvestor Awards website.
My Clinical Outcomes Enters Partnership with HCA Healthcare UK
17th January, 2024
My Clinical Outcomes is delighted to have been selected by HCA Healthcare UK to roll-out a fully integrated and automated version of the platform to offer patients the opportunity to submit their Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs) feedback in a digital and easy to use format, as well as sending records to Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN).
“Patient-reported outcomes are integral to the care we offer at HCA Healthcare UK. Healthcare that is responsive to a patient’s lived experience, that adapts to their needs, is care that truly has the patient at the centre.”
Dr Cliff Bucknall, Chief Medical Officer at HCA UK.
MCO has developed a bespoke integrated version of the platform that enables a direct daily data feed from HCA UK to MCO. This offers several key benefits over the traditional stand-alone platform including improved patient experience and uptake, reducing manual hospital effort and much more.
More information about the partnership can be found in HCA’s announcement and on the Case Study page.
My Clinical Outcomes Shares The Royal College of Physician’s ‘Fix IT in Healthcare’ Prize with University Hospitals Sussex
11th December, 2023
My Clinical Outcomes is thrilled to share the Fix IT in Healthcare Prize alongside Dr Ollie Minton, Rob Herriott and their incredible colleagues at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) to implement and scale Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs) in routine NHS Cancer Care.
The Fix IT in Healthcare Prize rewards excellent innovation in digital healthcare, particularly digital initiatives that have, or promise to, improve patient safety and staff well-being within the NHS or healthcare more widely.
The project between MCO and NHS Sussex has received huge support over the past few years from NHS England, Sussex Cancer Fund, Unity Insights, My University Hospitals Sussex, BMJ and many more groups. It is now being sustained and grown through ongoing collaboration with NHS Sussex ICB, which is scaling the routine and integrated use of PROMs to other clinical areas beyond oncology and enhanced supportive care.
More information about this prize and MCO’s work with NHS Sussex can be found in the Case Study page.
My Clinical Outcomes Passes 7th Annual ISO 27001 Audit
4th December 2023
My Clinical Outcomes today has passed the British Standards Institute ISO 27001 audit with exceptional results—no non-conformities, observations, or areas for improvement were identified, affirming our steadfast commitment to data security.
Details of the audit and its outcomes will be shared soon, and you can find updates at the BSI Client Directory: BSI Client Directory.
ISO 27001, which is recognised as the gold standard for evaluating Information Security Management Systems. My Clinical Outcomes not only meets but exceeds NHS standards, incorporating DTAC, DSPT, CyberEssentialsPlus, and now, ISO 27001 accreditation as integral elements of our commitment to safeguarding patient data. This underscores our dedication to data security, surpassing NHS requirements.
Circle Health Group - Outcome Data Key to Clinical Success
10th October 2023
Following on from the recent launch of My Clinical Outcomes at Circle Health Group, Circle’s Medical Director and consultant orthopaedic surgeon Mr Peter James has updated on the progress in Independent Practitioner Today:
Quality can only be maintained through a relentless focus on continuous improvement and marginal gains. As Circle’s founding motto notes, ‘good enough never is’.
That’s why the next step in our continuous improvement journey is joining forces with My Clinical Outcomes to introduce its Patient Recorded Outcomes Measures platform at each of Circle’s 53 hospitals.
Effective data capture is vital to ensuring the success of a service or treatment pathway offered at a hospital. Increasingly, platforms like the one offered by My Clinical Outcomes are becoming instrumental to helping clinical teams evaluate and inform decision-making.”
The full Editorial can be found on the Independent Practitioner Today’s website and more information about Circle Health Group and MCO Partnership and our Case Study page.
NHS Scotland Publish Value Based Health & Care Action Plan
4th October 2023
The new Action Plan from Professor Sir Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, sets out 13 high level actions to support health and care professionals to practise Realistic Medicine and deliver better value care by focusing on outcomes that matter to people, optimising use of health and care resources, and contributing to a more sustainable health and care system.
One of these Actions is to explore digital capture and use of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and specific outcome measures to drive improvement and better value care.
More information and the ambition for routine PROMs in NHS Scotland can be found in the Action Plan.
To learn more about MCO’s extensive work to explore the implementation of digital PROMs in routine cancer care in Scotland as part of the Cancer Innovation Challenge, please read our Case Study page.
PHIN Quality Forum
21st September 2023
MCO were delighted to join delegates from across the UK private sector for the inaugural PHIN Quality Forum in central London that included talks on various topics.
The event was opened by the CEO of PHIN, Dr Ian Gargan and closed with an award presentation to recognise people and organisations making a significant contribution to PHIN’s work.
We were thrilled to see our key contact at Spire Healthcare, Adrian Roberts, winning the ‘steadfast hospital supporter’ award for his role in supporting Spire Healthcare’s 40 hospitals to embed My Clinical Outcomes to collect and submit quality data to PHIN!
More information about how MCO supports private sector clients to submit PROMs data to PHIN can be found on our website page.
My Clinical Outcomes Enters Partnership with Circle Health Group
26th June 2023
Circle Health Group, the UK’s largest private healthcare provider has announced that it will be joining forces with My Clinical Outcomes, to introduce their Patient Recorded Outcomes Measures platform at each of Circle’s 54 hospitals. The partnership comes following Circle's continuous drive to improve clinical outcomes and data capture.
My Clinical Outcomes signed with Circle in earlier this year and was launched across all of Circle’s hospitals in May. Peter James, Group Medical Director at Circle Health Group said:
‘Collecting and analysing outcome data is key to ensuring we continue to meet the needs of the patients we see every day. The partnership with My Clinical Outcomes promises to transform our ability to track, collect and monitor the performance of our hospitals and ultimately help us to continue offering outstanding care to the communities we serve.’
Read more information about this announcement.
Using PROMs and My Clinical Outcomes in Cancer Care - Key Note
at Intelligent Health UK - 2023 Summit
9th June 2023
At the Intelligent Health UK 2023 summit, in his keynote speech ‘ When personalised care meets technology’ , Prof. Richard Simcock - Chief Medical Officer at Macmillan Cancer Support and one of UK’s leading breast oncologists - championed the use of PROMs and My Clinical Outcomes (MCO) in cancer care.
He also shared his ideas on how PROMs and AI can be combined to achieve great benefits in one of the current biggest challenges in healthcare: saving clinical time.
Prof. Simcock’s shared the benefits of using MCO with his patients:
MCO allows patients to regularly report on their quality of life so that ‘ we can triage problems efficiently in a good quality conversation (with patients)’, and ‘it makes clinic efficient’ .
MCO also allows ‘at scale, and quickly, to see what are the problems for the community of patients that I treat’ and to implement improvement initiatives.
Find out more about this news and to watch the full key note video.
NHS England Begins Rollout of Mandatory Outcomes Registry
18th May 2023
NHS England will launch the new national mandatory medical device outcome registry this month in response to Baroness Cumberlege’s “First Do No Harm” review. The registry, called the Medical Device Outcome Registry (MDOR), aims to improve patient safety and outcomes by gathering data on high-risk procedures, clinicians, and device usage.
As well as key features such as native barcode scanning of the unique device identifier, MCO is pleased to see that MDOR will support the use of digital patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to enable feedback on the outcomes of a procedure to be collected directly from patients themselves.
A phased roll-out of MDOR is planned in selected hospitals and is due to be complete by spring 2024.
Laing Buisson’s Private Healthcare Summit - 2023
17th May 2023
We thoroughly enjoyed going back to Laing Buisson’s Private Healthcare Summit - 2023.
This year, the Conference featured many of the UK's largest operators, insurers, and interested parties. Amongst other senior delegates at the conference, several of MCO’s clients and collaborators like The London Clinic and PHIN (Private Healthcare Information Network),
Our highlights from the day:
It was great to see the emphasis on value-based healthcare (VBHC) on the agenda and to register consensus across the VBHC session’s panel. VBHC is not only both inevitable and desirable, but that technology is a key enabler to achieving this.
Updates from PHIN including that collection and use of PROMs in UK private sector is now encouraged for all eligible procedures regardless of any minimum volume thresholds. See here for more details.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board Embarks on Digital PROMs
11th April 2023
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has embarked on an ambitious programme to introduce the collection of Electronic Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMS) working with My Clinical Outcomes.
As well as integrating with local clinical systems and being made available to patients in both Welsh and English, the project makes use of nationally agreed data standards for PROMs and the forthcoming NHS Wales app, and aims to reach 50 clinical teams across the region within 3 years.
Find out more about this news and to see this on the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board website.
Hewitt Review Highlights Importance of Accurate Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures
5th April 2023
The recently published Hewitt Review set out to consider the oversight and governance of integrated care systems (ICSs) in England.
This Review brings positive developments, particularly in its alignment with the Cumberlege Review on medical device safety. A crucial aspect highlighted in the report is the need for automated, accurate, and high-quality availability of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) data. This emphasis aims to facilitate improvement efforts and ensure accountability within the healthcare system.
The recommendations on collecting PROMs assessments on a regular basis can be found on page 63 of the Hewitt Review.
PROMs Implementation Status included in “World’s Best Hospitals 2023”
16th March 2023
Newsweek and global data firm Statista have published their fifth annual listing of the World's Best Hospitals 2023. This year, they have ranked over 2,300 hospitals in 28 countries - listing top 250 global hospitals, as well as the best hospitals by country including a listing of top specialty hospitals.
For the first time this year, hospitals were surveyed regarding their PROMs implementation status. The addition of PROMs implementation status as a new pillar in the scoring model highlights the importance of patient perception of their functional well-being and quality of life in determining hospital quality metrics.
It is fantastic to see the number of UK NHS and private hospitals on this list, some of which My Clinical Outcomes work with directly.
You can read the publication for more information.
My Clinical Outcomes Finalist in the HealthInvestor Awards 2023
21st February 2023
We're thrilled to be a finalist in the HealthInvestor Awards 2023 as Technology Provider of the Year.
Since October 2022, MCO have engaged a further 5 leading private healthcare organisations, taking the number of individual private hospitals using MCO to measure and track their patients' outcomes to well over 100.
More information about the upcoming awards can be found from the website.
Remote Symptom Reporting Systems for Patients May Reduce Outpatient Waiting Lists
9th February 2023
A new Review article published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine highlights the use of electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) systems for triaging clinical care. Drawing on international examples, the authors summarise the benefits and challenges of implementing an ePRO system including:
Reduction in outpatient appointments
Better understanding and documentation of patients’ symptoms
Initiation of timely interventions
Facilitation of patient–clinician interactions/communication
The utilisation of ePROs in the delivery of outpatient care could potentially allow a more responsive healthcare system, reduce demand for clinic appointments, reduce time to care with associated improved outcomes and enhance cost-effectiveness of healthcare delivery – all of which are beneficial for patients, their families and society.
Aiyegbusi OL et al., Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 2023;116(2):44-64.
Read the full article on the journal website.
World Economic Forum’s Insight Report: Payment Models
and Value-Based Healthcare
8th January 2023
A new Insights Report published by the World Economic Forum explores how payment models can be an enabler of value-based healthcare. The report highlights the foundational principles of value-based health care and the importance of health outcomes measurements.
Numerous real-life case studies are highlighted including NHS Wales, who have implemented a PROMs standard operating model to ensure data standards, processes and information exchanges are aligned.
At MCO, we are excited to be a part of this change and are working with NHS Wales Cardiff and Vale University Health Board to roll-out routine PROMS collection.
NHS Scotland: Delivering Value Based Health & Care
14th December 2022
NHS Scotland announced the publication ‘Delivering Value Based Health & Care: A Vision for Scotland’. It sets out the challenges faced by NHS Scotland and the commitments they will make to support health and care professionals deliver care that people value.
The publication also highlights the value of PROMs and how they can be used to drive improvements in value based health and care.
MCO are proud to have worked across 5 Cancer Innovation Challenge work streams from 2017 to pilot oncology PROMs collection with NHS Scotland.
Read more about our work with NHS Scotland and for the full publication.
PHIN Annual Report 2021 - 2022
7th December 2022
MCO works with over 100 UK private hospitals to help make PROMs a part of routine care while also meeting routine submission requirements to the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN).
PHIN has published their Annual Report for 2021 - 2022. The report provides an update on their achievements in 2022, which includes improvements in health outcomes PROMs. You can view and download this report.
MCO part of the DIT Digital Health Playbook 2023 Edition
20th October 2022
We are extremely proud to have been selected by the Department of International Trade (DIT) to feature in the UK Digital Health Playbook - 2023 Edition.
The Playbook lists the UK Innovators who can support healthcare worldwide with the leading Digital Health solutions.
Click here to download the Playbook.
MCO Joins H2O General Assembly Meeting in Basel
18th October 2022
MCO’s CEO Tim Williams was invited to join the H2O General Annual Meeting in Basel, October 2022. Dr Tim Williams participated in breakout sessions and panel discussions to share our experiences with PROMs and oncology projects.
This General Annual Meeting celebrated 2 years of H2O - an exciting pan-EU project of 24 partners, including major teaching hospitals, patient organisations, research organisations and pharmaceutical organisations to establish PROMs Observatories in 4 countries & 3 disease areas: diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and cancer.
Learn more about the H2O project and visit the H2O website for latest updates and progress.
MCO - University Hospital Sussex Project On National News
5th September 2022
We are proud to have our project with University Hospital Sussex mentioned across 2 national news outlet, further boosting the positive impacts of routine clinical collection of PROMs.
This is following the recent publication in the BMJ, where the project results have demonstrated for the first time how the combination of PROMs with supportive oncology services can save the NHS substantial amounts of money.
You can find the BMJ publication details from their website and read more about MCO’s project work with University Hospital Sussex.
Clinical, Quality of Life and Cost Benefits Published in British Medical Journal
18th July 2022
The BMJ for the first time has reported that the combination of PROMs with supportive oncology services, could save the NHS substantial amounts of money.
One year after the introduction of collection and analysis of PROMs from patients with treatable but not curable cancers at University Hospitals Sussex using MCO, the results are now published in the British Medical Journal.
The results from this project demonstrate the positive impacts for patients and hospitals and clinics. Some of the key findings from this study include:
5% fewer unplanned admissions with hospitals
Length of admissions shorter by an average of 1.43 days
Reduced risk of emergency admission to hospitals
In addition to this, results show a return on investment with a benefit cost ratio of 1.4 – that is, for every £1 invested in the service, £1.40 was saved per patient.
Read more about MCO’s project with UHS.
MCO Exceeds Standards of NHS Digital Data Security and Protection Assessment
27th June 2022
The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) is an online self-assessment tool that allows organisations to measure their performance against the National Data Guardian’s 10 data security standards.
MCO continues to prove its commitment to data security and protection by exceeding the standards assessed by the NHS Digital toolkit, also for the year 2021/2022.
All organisations that have access to NHS patient data and systems must use this toolkit to provide assurance that they are practising good data security and that personal information is handled correctly.
NHS Wales Cardiff & Vale University Health Board Goes Live
23th May 2022
MCO has launched a three year engagement to roll-out routine PROMs to upwards of 50 clinical teams across the Cardiff and Vale Region. The Neuroendocrine Tumours service is the first to go live today with the platform available to patients in both English and Welsh.
As well as rolling out to numerous clinical areas, the platform is being integrated into the local patient administration systems and data repositories and patients will soon be able to login to complete PROMs directly from the NHS Wales app.
Launch of pan-EU H2O Health Outcomes Observatory project
10th May 2022
We were invited to join a panel discussion on 'Rising to the Technology Challenge' at the first H2O Health Outcomes Observatory project ‘Open House’ session.
The H2O is an exciting pan-EU project of 24 partners, including major teaching hospitals, patient organisations, research organisations and pharmaceutical organisations to establish PROMs Observatories in 4 countries & 3 disease areas: diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and cancer.
To learn more about the project click here and click here to go to the H2O website for latest updates and progress.
MCO Achieves Cyber Essentials Certificate
22nd April 2022
My Clinical Outcomes has achieved Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
Cyber essentials Plus is the highest level of certification under the Government-backed Cyber Essentials scheme, that aims to protect organisations against cyber-attacks. It involves independent verification by a Certification Body.
We are proud of our Cyber Essentials Plus badge, which demonstrates our commitment to operational cyber security and data safeguarding.
o read more about the Cyber Essentials scheme click here.
UHS Health Economic Analysis Published
4th April 2022
Unity Insights, formerly Kent, Surrey and Sussex Academic Health Sciences Network (AHSN), undertook health economic modelling alongside quantitative and qualitative data collection to provide a report evaluating health economic outcomes of the supportive oncology project.
“(Enhanced Supportive Care) provides earlier access to supportive care for patients who are towards end-of-life or with treatable but not curable cancer. It is typical to see substantial use of the healthcare system within these cohorts; therefore, the primary benefits identified for this programme focus on a reduction in the use of hospital resources to generate healthcare cost savings.”
“The service is not limited to patients with palliative cancer or within the Sussex region - other patients with chronic conditions would likely benefit from ESC.”
Key findings included:
🚑 Reduction in unplanned admissions & length of stay
🤝 Proactive & earlier supportive care
💰 c.£1.20 back for every £1 spent
📈 c.£11.2M saved over 5yrs if scaled across SE #NHS region.
To read the report in full click here.
Scottish Cancer PROMs Forum
25th March 2022
The Scottish Cancer PROMs Forum has been established as part of the Scottish Cancer PROMS Advisory Group which was formed in 2021 and reports to the National Cancer Recovery group. The aim of the Forum is to share existing work on Cancer PROMs and to support the Advisory Group in developing a set of key principles for the collection and use of PROMs in clinical practice in Scotland.
In 2017, MCO came ahead of around 130 other digital companies to win the Cancer Innovation Challenge to develop the MCO platform for cancer patients in Scotland.
For this first event we were asked to join Dr Peter Maclean, Director of Cancer Services at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, to give a background to MCO and the Cancer innovation Challenge and to explain how MCO is used to benefit chemotherapy patients at NHSAA.
Read more about the event here and to read more about MCO’s work to date in NHS Scotland see here.
Royal College of Ophthalmologists PROMs Webinar
23rd March 2022
Organised by Professor John Sparrow, outgoing Clinical Lead for the National Ophthalmology Database Audit and co-developer of the Cat-PROMs5 cataract PROM. We were invited to contribute our experience implementing digital PROMs in other conditions and procedures in the UK to this first webinar, exploring the potential for routine adoption of PROMs as part of the audit.
Read more about the National Ophthalmology Database Audit here.
ISO27001 Audit
28th February 2022
As part of our ongoing commitment to robust data governance and information security management, we undertook the annual audit of our people, processes and technology by the British Standards Institute and we were delighted to pass with zero non-conformities. In particular the assessor commented:
“The organisation was noted to be continuing to maintain and improve the processes effectively, with particular regard to positive areas:
Well-structured ISMS framework
Good system and performance monitoring process
Good corrective action log incident management process using JIRA
Internal audit reports were verydescriptive of the evidence seen.”
Click here for details.
MCO project at University Hospitals Sussex published in Journal of Clinical Oncology
December 2021
Further to our ongoing work supporting the introduction of routine PROMS at University Hospitals Sussex, MCO has been featured in a review published this month in the Royal College of Radiologists Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The paper reviewed the use of MCO by 324 patients at UHS over a 9 month period and concluded that “routine collection of electronic remote PROMs is an effective and useful strategy to provide real-time clinical feedback to teams” and that “Electronic PROMs are useful for the remote monitoring of patients living with cancer and identifying those who need urgent intervention”.
To read the paper please click here or here to see our Case Study or watch the video.
MCO at GIANT Health 2021
November 2021
MCO was delighted to present at this year’s GIANT (Global Innovation and New Technology) Health Event. Europe’s leading innovation festival which aim is to facilitate healthcare innovation and to support health-tech entrepreneurs and investors.
MCO was invited to present as a selected participant of the Edison Accelerator Programme, GE Healthcare-Wayra UK start-up acceleration & healthcare provider collaboration programme.
The conference marked the end of 2021 Edison Accelerator programme and the session focussed on the first cohort's successes, challenges and milestones reached over the course of the programme.
To read more about MCO participation in the Edison Programme click here.
Cadogan Clinic, PROMs for Cosmetic Procedures (Q-PROMs),
September 2021
MCO is delighted to announce its collaboration with Cadogan Clinic, starting September 2021, which increases our involvement in the private sector for the collection of digital PROMs and in particular, our contribution to better data collection in the cosmetic surgery sector.
The award-winning Cadogan Clinic has chosen MCO to collect Q-PROMs for six cosmetic procedures, recommended for PROMs reporting by the Royal College of Surgeons.
The Patient Reported Outcomes data will be submitted to the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) to meet regulatory requirements.
To find out more about Q-PROMs, click here
GE Healthcare Edison™ Accelerator, 2021 Cohort,
July 2021
MCO has been selected to join five other cutting-edge businesses on this first programme run by GE Healthcare in partnership with Wayra UK to bring established start-up and scale-up businesses together with new healthcare partners to develop their proposition and scale.
MCO are proud to join track 2 of the programme which will focus on ‘Eliminating Waste in the Oncology Care Pathway with AI and Digital Technologies’. We have the opportunity to partner with Alliance Medical, a leading provider of healthcare services in the UK, including running the NHS PET-CT scanning service across the NHS to develop new use cases to add value to patients who use their services.
To find out more, click here.
MCO collaborates in ChelWest Research Study - Digital PROMs in Colorectal Surgery
January 2021
MCO is proud to be part of the research study carried out by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust, in collaboration with Imperial College London and CW+.
This two year project, started in January 2021, aims to understand the possible benefits and uses of a web-based platform to automate the collection of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in patients with colon and rectal diseases who undergo surgery, to ultimately improve patient experience and quality of services.
To read more click here
MCO Exhibit At ICHOM Global Virtual Congress, November 2020
As a long-standing technology affiliate of ICHOM, MCO are delighted to attend and exhibit at this year’s ICHOM Global Virtual Congress. This event is the 7th annual ICHOM Conference and aims to connect global pioneers in Value Based Healthcare, share learnings and progress the journey to deliver better outcomes to patients.
Sessions focus on delivering transformational change and improving patient outcomes within healthcare ecosystems, along with the latest on standard set development and technical standards to facilitate implementation. To see the conference brochure, click here.
MCO Listed As Certified G-Cloud 12 Supplier,
September 2020
MCO are delighted to have been granted status as a certified Digital Marketplace Supplier through successful application to the G-Cloud 12 framework.
G-Cloud (Government Cloud) 12 helps customers in the UK public sector find and buy cloud computing services from accredited suppliers, all of whom have undergone a rigorous selection process to demonstrate the innovative value of their services. MCO’s listing on G-Cloud 12 highlights the continued benefits provided to healthcare services in systematically measuring and analysing the outcomes that matter to patients, remotely and routinely.
By being listed on the G-Cloud 12 framework, MCO are able to reach contracting agreements with new partners quickly and flexibly, through an easy-to-navigate procurement process.
If you would like to find out more about MCO and how we can support your organisation, please visit our
Digital Marketplace page or contact us directly at info@myclinicaloutcomes.com
MCO Nominated For Connect Industry Collaboration Award, August 2020
MCO are proud to have been shortlisted for the ‘Connect Industry Collaboration Award’ at the upcoming Holyrood 2020 Connect Awards, for enhancing oncology care in Scotland.
Having received the Industry Collaboration Award at the 2020 Digital Healthcare Awards for our long-term partnership with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, this latest nomination recognises our expansion across multiple cancer networks and health boards. At a time when remote monitoring of patients has become an essential factor in providing care, MCO has allowed digital PROMs collection to become a routine part of care for patients of over 50 different cancer types.
To find out more about MCO for NHS Scotland, please click here.
Click here to find out more about the 2020 Connect Awards.
MCO contribution to EIT Health: ‘Implementing Value-Based Healthcare in Europe, Handbook For Pioneers’, May 2020
EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) Health is a network of over 140 partners from leading businesses, research centres and universities from across 15 EU countries. Its goal is to deliver solutions to improve the quality of life of Europe’s citizens and the sustainability of healthcare systems.
MCO was interviewed by Professor Gregory Katz, Chair of Innovation & Value in Health at the University of Paris School of Medicine, and colleagues as they put together this handbook that aims to help health care providers realise the opportunity of VBHC in Europe.
Click here to find out more.
To read the handbook, please click here. MCO’s work with Spire Healthcare is referenced on pages 22 and 23 and with Novartis on page 29.
‘Covid-19 Emergency And The Need To Speed Up The Adoption Of Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes In Cancer Clinical Practice’, May 2020
This topic has been prominent throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, with a growing need to change the ways in which routine clinical care is carried out and monitor patients whose care has been disrupted.
“…the adoption of tools and questionnaires aimed at symptom description by patients with cancer has already been invoked for clinical practice, and in this unexpected Covid-19 emergency the use of electronic PROs (ePROs) could represent a smart strategy to pursue in clinical practice.”
Marandino L, Necchi A, Aglietti M, et el., University of Turin, May 2020
Click here to read the article.
To find out more about how MCO is supporting hospitals in caring for their patients during the Covid-19 pandemic, please click here.
‘The Increasing Value Of eHealth In The Delivery Of Patient-Centred Cancer Care’, May 2020
This Lancet Oncology review examines ten years of publications about patient-centred eHealth in oncology, including how technology such as remote, digital PROMs solutions can be used to improve patient-level and system-level outcomes, and concludes that “technology platforms will become part of routine care”.
Click here to read the publication.
Cancer Innovation Challenge Podcast, May 2020
Recorded with The Data Lab prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, this podcast summarises MCO’s involvement in the Cancer Innovation Challenge (see esp. 8 mins) and highlights the application of MCO specifically in supporting remote consultations (11 mins).
To find out more about the Cancer Innovation Challenge and MCO’s next steps in supporting NHS Scotland, please click here.
MCO
COVID-19 Update,
March 2020
COVID-19 is radically changing how hospitals care for their patients, including significantly and immediately reducing reliance on face-to-face consultations. We are doing all we can to support our clients and partners at this challenging time.
Read more here.
MCO Featured In ‘The National’ Newspaper,
March 2020
The continued success of MCO's work across oncology in Scotland was highlighted in 'Pilot success for award-winning My Clinical Outcomes cancer tool', an article published by The National newspaper.
Since receiving funding through the Cancer Innovation Challenge in 2017, MCO has been used to support haematological cancer patients at NHS Ayrshire and Arran by remotely capturing the impact of disease on patients’ lives, to give clinicians an accurate understanding of their condition and deliver longer-term insights into the effectiveness of various treatments.
Having been extended to patients across multiple cancer types across the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the South East Scotland Cancer Network, MCO now aims to deploy the platform across all Scottish health boards through the National Digital Platform.
MCO Shortlisted for
‘IT Innovator of the Year’ Award,
February 2020
MCO are proud to have been shortlisted for the ‘IT Innovator of the Year’ award at the upcoming HealthInvestor Awards in June, for our partnerships with Spire Healthcare and The London Clinic.
This award nomination recognises MCO as an ‘outstanding example within the health investment community of using technology in novel ways to improve efficiency, drive user engagement and create maximum alignment between digital development and business goals’.
MCO have been working with The London Clinic since 2017, and across all 39 Spire hospitals since 2016, to provide useful insights and drive positive change through the collection and analysis of PROMs. Across both partners, the use of MCO has expanded to over 60,000 patients.
Click here to find out more.
MCO Wins Industry Collaboration Award, February 2020
MCO received the Industry Collaboration Award at the Digital Healthcare Awards 2020 in recognition of the long-term partnership with NHS Ayrshire and Arran (NHSAA).
Since 2017, MCO has worked together with the clinical team at NHSAA to help improve patient engagement, enable more efficient use of clinical capacity and provide analytics to help identify variation in outcomes and inform the ongoing improvement of care pathways.
This award also recognises the excellent teams at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, the Cancer Innovation Challenge and Data Lab Scotland for helping to make PROMs a routine part of cancer care in Scotland, as well as Holyrood Events for hosting the awards.
MCO Cancer Innovation Challenge Project Showcased at Scottish Parliament, January 2020
Our collaboration with NHS Ayrshire and Arran was celebrated at ‘The Data Lab: Supporting Transformative Projects’ reception in the Scottish Parliament building. As well as speeches from Clare Adamson MSP and Kate Forbes MSP, the keynote talk of the evening was by Dr Peter MacLean, oncologist and Director of Cancer Services at NHS Ayrshire & Arran, who discussed our work over the past few years and the real difference MCO has made to the efficiency of his clinics and the impact it has had on his patients.
This partnership was our first Cancer Innovation Challenge project and is now in its third year of improving outcomes for patients. Led by The Data Lab and funded through the Scottish Funding Council, the Challenge aims to transform the lives of cancer patients through the innovative use of data, helping Scotland become a world leading carer for people with cancer.
“My Clinical Outcomes started working with NHS Ayrshire and Arran and are now working across 5 health boards…so who says we can’t scale innovation in Scotland?!”
Gillian Docherty OBE, CEO of The Data Lab, January 2020
PHIN Publish Health Outcomes Data,
December 2019
Information concerning health outcomes for patients receiving privately-funded care in the UK has been published for the first time. PHIN’s publication covers over 100 independent hospitals and NHS Private Patient Units - a major step in helping to inform patient choices.
“Patients should have access to this information so that they can make informed choices about their care and treatment and we welcome the increased transparency that this data provides.”
Professor Ted Baker, Care Quality Commission Chief Inspector of Hospitals, 2019
MCO are pleased to be successfully supporting our clients with this important initiative by facilitating the digital, remote collection of PROMs and managing data submission to PHIN. We look forward to contributing to further publications and assisting our clients in analysing their performance against industry benchmarks.
PROMs not only provide reassurance about the quality of services, but also help specialists to confirm what matters to their patients before treatment, and measure how treatment has met those needs following treatment."
Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, Chair of PHIN, 2019
Click here to find out more.
'For some cancer patients, monitoring symptoms can extend their lives', November 2019
The use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures to improve cancer survival was highlighted again in this Washington Post article.
Building upon key studies by Basch et al., the article discusses research by Cancer Care Ontario between 2007 and 2015 whereby patients who answered at least one survey during treatment were more than half as likely to have died during the study period than those who did not answer any surveys.
The article gives further backing to the use of patient reported outcomes in routine clinical practice and emphasises the importance of the shift towards more patient-centred care across oncology.
“There is a strong argument to be made for using these measures in routine care…this idea, that we have to change how we do our assessments with patients, is paradigm-shifting.”
Dr Lisa Barbera, University of Calgary, 2019
Trigger Project Presented at NCRI Conference, November 2019
As our partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and The Royal College of Radiologists continues and expands to other NHS sites, Project Trigger was presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Conference in Glasgow.
Our partners discussed the recent successes of the project in supporting people “living with and beyond cancer”, with 336 patients having registered in the first 9 months, tracking symptoms after the completion of pelvic radiotherapy in order that they might be directed to appropriate services if their online assessments raise suggest potential late toxicity. 85% of patients reported that they find it a helpful addition.
“These promising results show that electronic PROMS can be introduced in radiotherapy departments using a low resource model….Patients engage with electronic PROMs projects, and find them useful.”
A. Macnair et. al., NCRI Cancer Conference Abstract, 2019
Click here to find out more.
Trigger Project Featured In Journal of Clinical Oncology, August 2019
MCO recently featured in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, in relation to our partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and The Royal College of Radiologists.
In ‘The Challenge of Introducing Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Into a Radiotherapy Service’, our partners discuss how they have been using the platform to support radical pelvic radiotherapy patients across multiple sites, collecting data without the influence of physician bias.
“This could significantly improve the experience of patients undergoing treatment in the future, as in light of ongoing resource and workforce constraints, electronic collection of these data could provide stratified follow-up of patients with cancer, detecting those with toxicities and supporting remotely those who are not currently experiencing side-effects.”
A. Macnair et al., Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2019
Click here to read the article.
SCAN Awarded Funding To Trial MCO, August 2019
MCO are delighted to partner with the South East Scotland Cancer Network (SCAN) to support patients across a range of cancer types. SCAN were a successful applicant of the Cancer Innovation Challenge’s Health Board Funding Opportunity and will be working alongside the Edinburgh Cancer Centre (ECC) and MCO to implement the use of PROMs in routine care.
“The ultimate goal is joined-up patient-centred care for all cancer patients that is fit for purpose in the new digital healthcare era.”
Click here to find out more.
Therapeutic Oncology and the Road Ahead, August 2019
MCO was asked to contribute perspectives on future trends in therapeutic oncology, particularly how digital tools like MCO impact the lives of patients living with and beyond cancer. We explain that we are seeing growth in awareness of the importance of measuring quality of life, and significant enthusiasm from clinicians for new approaches to tailor cancer pathways and support better care.
“We expect that, in the near future, all cancer services will be supported by systematic, remote patient-reported data collection.”
Click here to read the article.
Click here to read the previous ICT article, 'Capturing Cancer Evidence'.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Awarded Funding To Trial MCO, July 2019
MCO are delighted to partner with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the first successful applicant for the Cancer Innovation Challenge's Health Board Funding Opportunity. The project will be trialled across the Gynaecological Cancer Service to improve care for ovarian cancer patients.
“Clinical teams will be better able to predict how people will react to clinical treatments in the longer-term and ultimately improve the quality of life for women affected by ovarian cancer.”
Click here to find out more.
ICHOM Conference, Rotterdam, 2-3rd May 2019
The 6th Annual ICHOM Conference takes place in Rotterdam, 2-3rd May. This event attracts global healthcare leaders to discuss advances in the implementation of outcomes measurement and value-based healthcare.
As a longstanding technology affiliate of ICHOM, MCO are taking part as a sponsoring exhibitor and Tim Williams is also guest speaking along sharing experience implementing outcomes measurement in pelvic radiotherapy patients.
Click here to see the conference brochure.
RCNi Cancer Nursing Conference, May 2019
The third annual Royal College of Nurses Cancer Nursing Conference takes place on the 1st May at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, London. 'The patient experience' is the focus of the 2019 conference and it is expected that over 150 cancer nurses will attend to discuss recent developments on key topics of care delivery.
MCO have been invited to draw on experience working with NHS Scotland through the Cancer Innovation Challenge and with Macmillan and the Royal College of Radiologists and present on how digital tools can improve patient outcomes.
To find out more click here.
Click here to view MCO's article previously published in Cancer Nursing Practice.
Data Summit, Edinburgh, March 2019
This international conference hosted by The Data Lab, Scotland, brings data leaders and practitioners together with the aim of sharing ideas to enhance data driven innovation.
MCO was invited to take part in a panel discussion with the deputy Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Dr Gregor Smith, and the two other winners of Cancer Innovation Challenge funding to highlight progress that's been made in advancing cancer outcomes in Scotland as a result.
We also had the opportunity to discuss the project and highlight the importance of using outcomes data to support cancer care to the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon.
Click here to find out more and here to see photos from the event.
Health Investor Awards 2019, February 2019
MCO are pleased to announce being shortlisted again in the technology category for IT Innovator of the Year at the Health Investor Awards 2019 taking place on 12th June at Grosvenor House.
Click here for more information.
Future of Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons, December 2018
The Commission on the Future of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons reviewed imminent developments impacting surgical specialties over the next twenty years. The report highlights examples of innovative best practice in pathway design including the work at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust using My Clinical Outcomes to support remote, long-term follow-up of hip and knee replacement patients.
Click here for more information.
War on Cancer Europe Conference, The Economist, London 20th November 2018
Now in it’s fourth year, the global Economist Events War on Cancer series brings together clinicians, patients, providers, industry and policymakers to discuss new opportunities for patients to take ownership of their diagnosis, treatments and oncology journey.
MCO’s Tim Williams joined Dr Neil Bacon, President and CEO of the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM) and Dr Vivek Muthu, chair of the Economist Intelligence Unit in conversation to discuss our experience implementing outcomes measurement in oncology care and the “Promises and Pitfalls of Patient Access to Data”.
Join the debate @EconomistEvents #WarOnCancer.
Click here for more information.
View photos from the event.
Capturing Cancer Evidence, International Clinical Trials, November 2018
Following on from February's article - 'PROMs in Practise', MCO CEO, Dr Tim Williams discusses how patient-reported outcomes can support patients undergoing cancer care, focussing on how MCO is supporting UK NHS oncology services to capture and track symptoms and side effect data during acute care as well as toxicity and late effects many months after treatment has finished.
Click here to read the article.
Click here to read the previous ICT article.
Cancer Innovation Challenge Video, November 2018
The Cancer Innovation Challenge have created a new animation to showcase the winning projects at this year's National Cancer Research Institute’s (NCRI) annual conference held in Scotland for the first time in November 2018.
Click here for more info about CIC at NCRI and here to watch the video.
National Cancer Research Institute Conference, November 2018
MCO were delighted to be hosted by the 'Cancer Innovation Challenge' at the UK's largest forum showcasing the latest advances in cancer research. Through the Cancer Innovation Challenge, MCO are now working with NHS Ayrshire and Arran and The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre to support the acute care and long-term follow-up of patients with breast and blood cancers undergoing chemotherapy.
Click here for more information.
How Digital Tools Could Improve Cancer Care, Cancer Nursing Practice, September 2018
An update on developments with My Clinical Outcomes’ NHS Scotland and Macmillan / Royal College of Radiologists oncology projects for subscribers to Cancer Nursing Practice.
Click here to visit Cancer Nursing Practice and click here to view.
Using technology to transform cancer outcomes, August 2018
Read our latest guest blog for the Cancer Innovation Challenge on progress so far working with clinicians and patients at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, and what’s next for our work with NHS Scotland to measure and improve cancer outcomes.
Click here to read the blog.
Project Trigger, July 2018
MCO, Macmillan Cancer Support and The Royal College of Radiologists are working in partnership with Imperial College NHS Foundation Trust, Sussex Cancer Centre and Velindre Cancer Centre, to remotely monitor patients and screen for long-term side effects in patients who have undergone pelvic cancer radiotherapy treatment.
Click here for more information.
Restoring the reputation of the private hospital sector, June 2018
Industry views on how the UK private sector can respond following recent negative publicity around a highly critical Care Quality Commission report on the sector. The majority of contributors were in favour of improved transparency on quality and outcomes, including Nuffield Health CEO, Steve Gray, Aviva Medical Director, Doug Wright, NHS Partners Network CEO, David Hare, and our own Tim Williams who is quoted as saying, “We’d move from a world of service to a world of value-based healthcare – where providers get paid for delivering outcomes, not for the amount of work they do.”
Read the article here.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran, May 2018
NHS A&A and MCO have signed a long-term agreement to continue work started during the Cancer Innovation Challenge with MCO being used to help remotely monitor symptoms and side effects of patients during chemotherapy to help inform treatment decisions and improve quality of life.
Click here to find out more.
PROMs at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference, May 2018
The benefits of incorporating digital patient-reported outcomes measurement into cancer treatment featured prominently again at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference.
The beneficial results from last year’s publication in JAMA by Basch et al. were recapped, specifically that in the study group using digital PROMs alongside usual treatments:
31% reported quality of life benefits at 6 months
there were 7% fewer Emergency Room visits
mean overall survival was 5 months longer (translating to an absolute 5 year survival benefit of 8%)
There was also a discussion about barriers to adoption of PROs in routine practice that centred on the need for cost-effective, specialist digital tools.
Read more about the discussion at the conference here.
How outcomes measurement affects doctors in private practice - Independent Practitioner Today, May 2018
Featuring in May's Independent Practitioner Today, a specialist publication focussed on doctors working in private practice, Tim Williams looks at how digital outcomes measurement can help clinicians to better engage with their patients, essential not least as PHIN starts publishing clinician-level outcomes data from summer of 2018.
Click here to find out more.
Podcast discussion: The Use of Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs) in the United Kingdom - The Healthcare Policy Podcast, May 2018
Following a recent 'The Healthcare Blog' opinion piece (see below) co-authored with US-based healthcare policy consultant David Introcaso, Tim Williams discusses UK perspectives on the use of digital outcomes measurement, lessons learned and potential applicability to for US providers with David in his regular podcast, The Healthcare Policy Podcast.
Click here to listen to the podcast.
Revitalising the Sector with Outcomes Analytics - Health Markets, May 2018
Writing in this month's Laing Buisson Health Markets magazine for senior private sector management and investors, MCO CEO Tim Williams makes the case that the opportunity for outcomes measurement goes beyond simply complying with regulatory requirements, and has tangible clinical and commercial benefits.
Click here to read more.
PROMs - Progress Across The Pond, April 2018
Tim Williams and David Introcaso, a healthcare policy consultant based in Washington DC, co-authored a post for this prominent US health policy blog on the efforts that the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are making to introduce PROMs data collection and the relevance of recent progress in the UK.
Click here to find out more.
Spire Healthcare Annual Report 2017, March 2018
In this years annual report, Dr JJ de Gorter references My Clinical Outcomes role in the submission of PROMs and their extension of collecting PROMs for cosmetic procedures using the platform: "We have been submitting data for many months and have extended our collection of PROMs beyond hip and knee replacement and cataract surgery to include cosmetic procedures using our digital platform, My Clinical Outcomes. "
Click here for more information
PROMs in Practise - International Clinical Trials journal, February 2018
MCO CEO, Dr Tim Williams has contributed an article on the current landscape for measurement of Patient Recorded Outcome Measures (PROMs) in the UK public and private sector and internationally, including the benefits of digital platforms such as My Clinical Outcomes, for the International Clinical Trials journal.
Click here to read the article.
MCO finalists in HealthInvestor Awards 2018, February 2018
MCO have once again been named as finalists in the HealthInvestor 2018 awards ‘Health Technology Company of the Year’ category. The awards aim to recognise innovation in the independent healthcare sector and the judges look for those who have made an outstanding contribution to healthcare in 2017. The results will be announced at Grosvenor House Hotel on 13th June.
Click here to read more.
MCO Awarded Phase 2 Funding in NHS Scotland “Cancer Innovation Challenge”, February 2018
MCO are delighted to announce that we have been awarded second phase funding from the Cancer Innovation Challenge (CIC). The CIC is “a project funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to encourage Innovation Centres in Scotland to work in partnership to help Scotland become a world leading carer for people with cancer.”
To read the CIC Phase 2 press release please click here.
MCO have already started configuring the system, based on requirements and designs developed in phase 1, and are about to start collecting patient reported outcomes data for patients with haematological cancer at NHS Ayrshire and Arran. MCO will incorporate guidance from Macmillan Cancer Support and make the system interoperable with Orion Healthcare, an established clinical portal in Scotland.
The news featured in the national newspaper of Scotland, the Scotsman. Click here to read the article.
MCO client Spire Healthcare “lead the way on collecting private healthcare outcomes data”, February 2018
The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) have for the first time released information about which private healthcare providers are making the best progress towards the aim of collecting and submitting comprehensive outcomes data for publication.
MCO have worked with Spire Healthcare to implement an innovative digital outcomes programme where others in the sector have opted for traditional pen-and-paper approaches to data collection. We are delighted therefore that they, and in particular Spire Leicester Hospital, have been singled out by PHIN as leading the way in the whole private sector in the UK on this essential initiative that will bring much needed transparency on quality to private healthcare.
As well as meeting their requirements for PHIN, MCO gives patients and clinicians of Spire Healthcare visibility of outcomes data in real-time to support individual treatment choices. Future releases by PHIN will see greater granularity in the data, in time showing variation in average health gain for treatments of different conditions, in different hospitals and by different clinicians.
Click here to read the PHIN press release.
MCO exhibit at the 4th Annual Future of Healthcare Investor Forum, January 2018
On the 25th January 2018 MCO were invited to showcase at The London Stock Exchange 4th Annual Future of Healthcare Investor Forum. Hosted by leading industry experts, the forum focused attention on the direction of leading technologies and investments for the future in healthcare.
This was the first year in which keynote presentations tackled innovation issues regarding digital health. MCO were delighted to be selected as one of the five digital health SME’s invited to exhibit at the forum.
Click here to read more.
Developments in PROMs for Mental Health patients, January 2018
In a new paper in the British Journal of Psychiatry, Keetharuth and colleagues have tested the benefits of using the Recovering Quality of Life (ReQOL) PROM, for the first time aiming to address the challenge of systematically capturing a succinct, valid and reliable measure but that is broad enough to be used across services and patient groups and goes further than just facilitating diagnosis. The measure is determined to properly capture and differentiate patients and has generated enthusiasm with the NHS England National Medical Director commenting as a result, “Is this [2018] the year the mental health world cracks the data barrier? - routine PROMs, PREMs [are] the only sustainable way to make progress and gain support.”
A discussion of the paper on the respected “The Mental Elf” blog notes that "PROMs have been promoted for some time, but ...challenge of widespread implementation across a larger healthcare organisation and system, with ‘real-time’ digital usage and multi-level feedback and analysis for service users, clinicians, teams, and services – a problem as yet generally not cracked.”
MCO are working to leverage our technology to help address this significant need in an important disease area.
Click here to read the blog that discussed the developments.
Forbes identify PROMs as one of "7 Key Cancer Trends for 2018”, January 2018
To mark the New Year, Forbes Magazine has published a list of major trends that they expect to affect the lives of patients living with cancer in 2018. At number 6 is the widespread adoption of patient-reported outcomes: “What patients feel matters… As patients and doctors weight treatments that might improve quality-of-life, without necessarily improving survival, then PROs become more relevant."
We agree but would go further to cite the research from 2017 - see here - that also demonstrated that the use of digital patient-reported outcome measurement could help hospitals and doctors manage patients better and actually improve survival by up to 5 months.
Click here to read the article.
Healthcare Digital - Understand Outcomes to Care About Patients, December 2017
Healthcare.Digital invited MCO to write an article on the MCO approach and the benefits of digital outcomes measurement, including our work in the UK private sector and more recently, oncology, following the publication of the survival benefit that can be conferred for patients with advanced cancer - see here - , and how digital outcomes measurement can deliver a higher quality care to a patient at a greater value to the healthcare system as a whole.
Click here to read more.
Research: Outcomes Data Demonstrates That Common Shoulder Surgery is Ineffective, November 2017
A UK randomised controlled trial involving 313 patients, 51 surgeons and 32 hospitals used post-treatment Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) data collected at six and twelve months to demonstrate that a common surgical treatment of shoulder pain (arthroscopic sub-acromial decompression) is no more effective than not operating on these patients.
This surgery is commonly performed in the UK and this study shows that simply by measuring outcomes data provides essential new information about the effectiveness of treatments. Routinely collected outcomes data has the opportunity to improve care for all patients while reducing the significant costs associated with providing ineffective treatments.
Click here to see the research.
ICHOM Conference, Washington DC, 25th October 2017
My Clinical Outcomes had the privilege of attending and exhibiting at the 5th annual ICHOM conference on the 25-26th October in Washington DC. The conference, attended by health system leaders from around the world, centred on enabling and accelerating the process towards value based healthcare, including focussing attention on “the patients view”, “analytical potential” and the “future of outcomes measurement". MCO are a technology affiliate of ICHOM and from our stand we shared our experience of implementing electronic outcomes measurement programmes in the UK NHS and private sectors with scores of delegates over the two days.
The London Clinic, October 2017
We are proud to announce that, starting immediately, The London Clinic have selected MCO to provide outcomes measurement and analytics, as well as submission of anonymised data for publication through PHIN. Opened in 1932 and situated in the heart of London’s medical community, The London Clinic is one of the UK’s largest private hospitals. MCO look forward to working closely with The London Clinic team to help them continue to provide the highest quality, personalised healthcare.
MCO present on Clinical Outcomes in Cancer at Annual Clinical Conference, 7th October 2017
GenesisCare is the largest provider of cancer services in Australia and runs cancer treatment centres in the UK and Spain. The annual UK Clinical Conference brought together local and international speakers to discuss new innovations, cross-industry collaboration, best practice protocols, outcomes and the delivery of an exemplary clinician and patient experience. Our CEO, Dr Tim Williams, attended to discuss recent advances in outcomes measurement in oncology as part of the Empowering through Collaboration and Innovation Session.
Click here for more information.
MCO nominated for the 'Innovation in Technology' LaingBuisson Award, 15th September 2017
MCO are thrilled to be nominated in the Innovation in Technology award category at this year's Laing Buisson Awards. The awards recognise and celebrate industry excellence and innovative services in the public, private and third sectors. This year's awards will be taking place at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel in London on 15th November.
Click here for information about the finalists.
MCO announced as part of Digital Health London Accelerator, 7th September 2017
MCO have been selected to join the second Digital Health London accelerator programme cohort of digital health companies. Announced at a launch event at The Oval cricket ground in London on 7th September. Digital Health London is a collaboration between the three London Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs): Imperial College Health Partners, UCLPartners, the Health Innovation Network, and MedCity, with support from NHS England and the Mayor’s Office. The Accelerator programme, which will last for one year, aims to speed up the adoption of technology across London’s NHS.
Please watch the video below to see a short presentation given by our COO Sally Smith introducing MCO at the launch event.
Click here for more information on the launch event, the Accelerator programme and to see the companies involved.
MCO receive Scottish Funding Council "Cancer Innovation Challenge”, 5th September 2017
MCO are among five companies to receive phase one funding from the Scottish Funding Council "Cancer Innovation Challenge” that is seeking innovative technology for measuring and integrating PROMs to improve cancer care in Scotland. Winners of the funding were announced in Edinburgh on 5th September. The initial tranche of funding is to undertake a three month feasibility study MCO in addressing the challenge: "New approaches to record and integrate cancer PROMs and PREMs”. At the end of three months we will have the opportunity to bid for a further £100k to take the project onwards.
For more information please click here.
MCO to present at Laing Buisson Private Acute Healthcare Conference, 12th October 2017
Laing Buisson’s annual conference for the private acute hospital sector will be at the Royal Society of Medicine in London and examines opportunities for growth in the sector, as well as underlying trends, including around outcomes-based commissioning and changes in technology. Tim will join Greg Swarbrick, Head of Healthcare Outcomes at BUPA and Matt James, CEO of PHIN, in a session on “Outcomes" and give MCO’s perspectives on the questions: “What do we really mean? And how do we get there?”, including an update one year on from implementation of MCO across Spire Healthcare.
Click here for more information on the event and to register to attend.
Research: Remote PROMs Improve Survival in Cancer Patients, June 2017
A team from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre presented a randomised controlled trial that showed a median increase of 5 months survival for patients with advanced cancer who were asked to remotely track their outcomes using a digital platform like 'My Clinical Outcomes'. By comparison, only one of the seven new and very expensive drugs approved for use for advanced cancer patients in the US in 2016 had a greater impact on survival. Potential mechanisms included enabling earlier responsiveness to patient symptoms preventing later adverse consequences and patients being able to tolerate chemotherapy longer than usual. The implication is clear, however, that remote outcomes monitoring should now be a routine part of high quality cancer care.
Click here to see the research and here for the write up in the Washington Post.
Global Healthcare Leaders Survey: "Industry is being transformed by value-based care”, May 2017
The global investment bank that operates in 27 countries conducted 300 interviews with senior hospital and healthcare industry executives in US and Europe. The results “found surprisingly strong sentiment that the industry will be transformed over the next five to ten years by the development of new pricing models broadly known as value-based care, which will displace the traditional fee-for-service model. Overall, the responses indicated that value-based care may have even more of an impact on the industry than will scientific breakthroughs.”
Click here to read more details about the research.
World Economic Forum publishes first update 'Value in Healthcare' report, April 2017
The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), launched the Value in Healthcare project in July 2016 to stimulate a shift from fee-for-service to value-based healthcare that delivers health outcomes that matter to patients. This report from year one of the project identifies key enablers for the transformation that include the adoption of health informatics tools to facilitate the easy collection, analysis and sharing of outcomes data. It also identifies ICHOM as the international standard for outcomes measurement across disease categories.
Click here to read the report in full and here to learn more about My Clinical Outcomes' affiliation with ICHOM.
ISO/IEC 27001 Information Management Security Certification,
March 2017
We are proud to announce that the British Standard Institution (BSI) has issued MCO with a certificate of ISO/IEC 27001 compliance (certificate number IS 666214). A robust external audit of all legal, physical and technical controls, policies and procedures involved in our information risk management processes concluded that MCO "operates an Information Security Management System which complies with the requirements of ISO/IEC 27001 for the provision of patient outcome measures". This accreditation provides our clients with important further reassurance and safeguards about our ongoing commitment to information and data security.
Patient Reported Outcome Measures: A Stethoscope for the Patient History, Feb 2017
A team from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital highlight the clinical utility of systematic PROMs measurement in surgical patients and the opportunity that digital tools can do this by enhancing and not disrupting clinical workflows. They conclude: "Ultimately, if physicians and health care systems embrace the opportunity that PROMs present, the dual goals of value-based and patient-centered care can be achieved."
Click here to read the article.
MCO nominated for HealthInvestor magazine's 'IT Innovator of the Year' award, February 2017
MCO has been shortlisted as a technology finalist of the 2017 HealthInvestor Awards, recognising achievement in the business of healthcare. Winners of the 'IT innovator of the Year' category will be announced during the awards dinner on 1 June at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
OECD & ICHOM to Collaborate on International Comparison of Patient-Reported Outcomes, January 2017
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has, on behalf of its 35 member countries, begun a project to understand how to better collect and report internationally comparative outcomes data that represents health system performance based not on inputs and activities but on the outcomes of care from the patient's perspective. The project includes a commitment to work with ICHOM, among other organisations such as the WHO and Commonwealth Fund, to extend and deepen the benchmarking of patient-reported performance indicators across the 35 member countries.
Click here for more on the collaboration and here for details about the project.
The data challenge: How and why do we measure patient outcomes? London, December 2016
The Science|Business event involved experts from across Europe who debated and discussed the challenges in analysing and acting on data concerning patient outcomes. My Clinical Outcomes COO Sally Smith highlighted the importance of using digital platforms for real-time data analysis and to engage patients in the process of outcomes collection.
Click here for more information.
National PROMs Summit, December 2016
The 2016 conference covered domestic and global developments in PROMs and their utility in clinical practice. Partnering with iWantGreatCare for the day, MCO exhibited at the event and joined the discussion as an expert in digital PROMs implementation and collection.
European Health Forum Gastein: Demographics and Diversity in Europe - New Solutions for Health, September 2016
Dr Tim Williams recently took part in the annual European Health Forum, Gastein. The AppGastein2016 mHealth focussed on the future of health technology applications in supporting healthcare delivery across European health systems. Download slides from this panel session and others on the EHFG website here.
"mHealth lessons to be learned" panel
Click here for more information about EHFG 2016.
NHS England Health and Care Innovation Expo, 2016
On the 7th-8th September My Clinical Outcomes were in Manchester for NHS England’s Health and Care Innovation Expo 2016. It was great to meet and discuss with other innovators in the health sector the importance of technology for the collection and measurement of outcomes data from the patient's perspective.
Click here for more information on this year's Expo.
The Private Healthcare Summit, June 2016
Tim Williams was invited to speak at The Private Healthcare Summit 2016 on June 21st. This year's summit focussed on ‘Revitalising private healthcare for the 21st century.’ Tim spoke about leveraging digital technology to make patient-reported outcomes measurement useful.
Click here for more information about the summit.
Spire Healthcare, April 2016
Spire Healthcare have now engaged My Clinical Outcomes as part of their ongoing commitment to transparency and quality and as part of the new requirement to collect outcomes data on private patients for submission to the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN). MCO is now being rolled out across all 39 of their UK facilities. MCO are especially pleased to have been chosen by Spire Healthcare because of their historical commitment to evidencing the high quality of their services having been the first private hospital provider group in the UK to start to publish outcomes data publically through their website.
ICHOM Conference, May 2016
My Clinical Outcomes had the pleasure of attending the 4th annual ICHOM conference on May 16-17 at University College London! It was the first time that the conference was held outside of Boston, USA and was their largest conference to date. This year’s conference focussed on the “why” and “how” of outcomes measurement. MCO are a certified technology supplier to ICHOM and shared our experiences of implementing the outcomes programmes in the UK with NHS and private providers.
At this years conference ICHOM launched a new supplier directory, called the TechHub.
Click here to read reviews of MCO on ICHOM's TechHub.
Future Health Insights: Conference and Panel Discussion, February 2016
This event on 'Advancing mHealth: Can the smartphone pioneer a new self-care agenda?' brought together two panels to discuss the role of the smartphone in future healthcare delivery. Tim joined a panel discussing current gaps in the health app market. The panel acknowledged that much of the hype around health apps remains focused on fitness trackers with limited clinical utility, but that the increasing digitisation of health systems in general as well a push from patients to be helped to manage their care on their devices is creating opportunities for developers of clinically focused apps.
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Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth, December 2015
We are delighted to announce that the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth has chosen My Clinical Outcomes to help them collect outcomes data for submission and publication through PHIN. Based in North London, the Hospital of St. John & St. Elizabeth is one of the largest independent hospitals in the UK. MCO is being implemented for private patients undergoing each of eight procedures, including hip and knee replacement, shoulder surgery, cataract surgery, groin hernia repair, trans-urethral resection of the prostate and nasal septoplasty. Data for submission to PHIN will include a condition specific and generic well-being measure collected pre-operatively and once post-operatively for each. Patients will then have the option to collect ongoing data to be able to track their progress over time.
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The Health Foundation Retreat, December 2015
Our CEO was recently invited to take part in a retreat held by The Health Foundation, 'Measuring outcomes that matter to patients: what they are, why they matter and how we might measure them.' During the two day event the group, which contained academics, clinicians and experts with experience in developing outcomes tools, standards and programmes, as well as patient leaders, explored the relationship between and role and use of person-centred outcomes (PCOMs) and more robust standardised measures (PROMS) and the roles and merits of each in performance management and quality improvement.
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Health Datapalooza Conference, June 2015
MCO has joined a trade mission organised by the UK Department of Trade & Industry and NHS England to Health Datapalooza, the gathering of top international thought leaders in health data from across healthcare, technology, government and academia. As well as the mission itself, which provides an invaluable opportunity to discuss the MCO approach with invited guests of the British Embassy in Washington, MCO is appearing three times during the conference itself:
App Expo Live Demo, 1st June 1430 - live demo from conference stage
Patient Reported Outcomes as Quality Indicators in the US & UK: Issues & Opportunities: 1st June 1520 - panel discussion hosted by US Department of Health & Human Services & NHS England on the international collaboration to analyse available outcomes data
App Demo Booth, 2nd June 1500 - interactive hands-on demo session
Private Healthcare Information Network, Spring 2015
Since Spring 2015 MCO have worked with UK private hospitals to meet the requirements set by the Competition & Markets Authority to collect and publish outcomes data through PHIN.
ICHOM Conference, November 2014
After the 2nd Annual ICHOM Conference last year, our CEO, Dr. Tim Williams will be attending again this year, but this time representing MCO as a Certified Supplier to ICHOM. Tim is taking part in a lunchtime breakout panel session on implementation and IT solutions for the collection of ICHOM Standard Sets. This year's conference also sees the launch of 8 more outcome sets, Advanced Prostate Cancer, Cleft Lip & Palate, Depression & Anxiety, Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis, Lung Cancer, Macular Degeneration, Parkinson's Disease, and Stroke which will be working with ICHOM to incorporate into MCO very soon following their release.
MCO achieves ICHOM Certified Supplier status, September 2014
We are delighted to announce that following our efforts to develop MCO to deploy the initial ICHOM outcome sets, including Low Back Pain and Parkinson's Disease, My Clinical Outcomes has now been formally accredited as an ICHOM Certified Supplier. We very much look forward to continuing to work with ICHOM, and healthcare providers around the world, to incorporate and deploy the International Standards Outcome Sets for new conditions as they are developed.
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Spring Active, Autumn 2014
Spring Active are the only UK based provider of vertically integrated care pathways that follow UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for self-management through to high intensity Combined Physical and Psychological programmes.
In early 2014, Spring Active approached My Clinical Outcomes to implement the ICHOM Low Back Pain Standard Set alongside other measures they were already collecting using pen-and-paper methods. MCO have worked alongside Spring Active to integrate and deploy the set as described, including building functionality to integrate the Euroqol EQ5D measure according to the specification of ICHOM and in-line with the licensing requirements of Euroqol.
Peter Dines, Chief Executive of Spring Active said, "We are delighted to partner with My Clinical Outcomes to allow our patients to monitor their own progess online before, during and after treatment. We have a vision to collect and publish the largest cohort of back pain outcomes data in the UK and utilising the ICHOM data set we will be able to compare ourselves to our international peers. The My Clinical Outcomes team share our passions for collecting outcomes data and we have been delighted with our experience of working with them to date."
Health Datapalooza, June 2014
Health Datapalooza is a US national health information technology conference, help annually in Washington DC, which focuses on, "liberating health data, and bringing together the companies, startups, academics, government agencies, and individuals with the newest and most innovative and effective uses of heath data to improve patient outcomes". Tim was invited by US Ministry of Health's National Coordinator of Health IT to take part in a panel discussion in the General Track on the Tuesday, co-hosted with NHS England, on "Accelerating Widespread Collection and Use of Patient Reported Outcomes in Electronic Technology in the United States & United Kingdom" and took part via a live weblink.
The panel brought together US patient reported outcomes systems suppliers with academics and clinical registry experts interested in furthering UK and US collaboration in the area. As well as being an excellent opportunity to present and discuss our experiences in the UK, the session demonstrated that many of the challenges of implementation, engaging patients, making systems clinical useful and useable, as well as how data should best be analysed, insight communicated and advancements in practices made as a result were common to all and it therefore makes great sense to work together to share understanding.
Health 2.0, April 2014
Part of the international Health 2.0 movement, this London community is for anyone - technology enthusiasts, developers, students, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, patients, designers, social workers and doctors - interested in innovation in the delivery of healthcare and health related technology.
Tim presented at the session asking the question, "Does giving patients access to their own data actually increase engagement and improve outcomes?". Other speakers at the event were Fiona McKenzie, patient and Patient Insight & Involvement Lead at UCL Partners, Sam Meikle, Director at London Connect and Alex Tarling, a usability and user experience consultant. Time started by acknowledging that we are still in the very early days of being able to answer this question, but that being more transparent with patients about their own health data as actually measuring the clinical outcomes that matter to them resulting from all aspects of care were essential first steps.
OPM Patient Engagement Seminar, March 2014
OPM is an independent research organisation that works with leaders, policymakers, regulators, commissioners and providers - as well as service users and communities - to ensure that services are designed and implemented efficiently, effectively and in the public interest.
Tim Williams was a panelist at the recent Breakfast Seminar 'Realising the power of patients to product tangible and radical reforms - Moving from the possible to the essential in the new NHS'. He discussed his experiences of working with doctors and health managers and commissioners to shape My Clinical Outcomes to suit local needs and to engage patients with long term conditions to monitor their own health outcomes.
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Zimmer pilot to support UK launch of Persona, February 2014
The leading orthopaedic device manufacturer is launching their new Personalised Knee System in the UK at seven NHS hospital sites from Spring 2014. My Clinical Outcomes is delighted to have been chosen to provide a mechanism for real-time monitoring of patients' clinical outcomes in the post-operative period.
This will give patients and their orthopaedic surgeon understanding of the benefits of surgery, as well as to inform the need for face-to-face follow-up attendances. Training of Zimmer representatives was conducted on 26th February prior to expected roll-out between March and May.
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Health 2.0 Europe Conference, November 2013
We are thrilled to be part of this fast-paced extravaganza of all things digital health and were on stage demonstrating during the "Improving and Enriching the Patient-Provider Relationship" session. The conference brought together innovative health technology companies, large corporate with an interest in digital health, and investors from around the world to showcase the latest news and developments.