London Cancer Takes a ‘Data Lake’ Approach to Tracking Patients and Data Flow Across its Renal Cancer Pathway

Delivering the right data, at the right time, to the multi-disciplinary renal cancer team in North London’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) requires meaningful collaboration, a deep understanding of the cancer pathway and the ability to leverage modern data application development and data processing techniques. 

Essential to the success of a service that spans a network of primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare organisations, is how efficiently and effectively the associated multi-disciplinary team (MDT) operates. Two key requirements for an effective MDT are, first, a clear integrated care pathway that all stakeholders are aligned to, and, second, that the pathway is underpinned by access to the right information at the right time and only to those authorised to view that data. This ensures that data follows the patient across organisational boundaries and promotes collaboration between the specialist cancer centre and the wider group of hospitals with which it needs to engage.