This study assessed how often GPs follow the guidelines, whether certain patients are less likely to be referred, and how many patients were diagnosed with cancer within 1 year of non-referral.MethodsWe used linked primary care (Clinical Practice Research Datalink), secondary care (Hospital Episode Statistics) and cancer registration data.

Safer Dx e-Measures to Reduce Preventable Delays in Cancer Diagnosis.īackgroundClinical guidelines advise GPs in England which patients warrant an urgent referral for suspected cancer. Understanding and improving the use of investigations in primary care.

Investigating the conversion rate of routine referrals for patients presenting with symptoms of possible cancer INCEA: National Clinical Excellence Awards - Reward, recognition and retention of highly-skilled doctors and dentists ProsDetect: Primary care models for the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer SPOCC: SPOtting Cancer amoung Comorbiditiesĭi-Facto: Digital Facilitation in Primary CareĮRICA: Electronic RIsk assesment for CAncerĬOLOFIT: Optimal use of Faecal Immunochemical Testing for patients with symptoms of possible colorectal In particular, I am interested in how we quantify it and how misleading crude statistics can be. I am the principal investigator on the recently funded SPOCC NIHR Programme grant, a co-applicant on the CRUK funded international CanTest programme (testing for cancer in primary care) and the ERICA trial (testing risk assessment tools).Īcross all three themes is a methodological interest in exploring and explaining the sources of organisational variation in performance. Examining variability across the diagnostic pathway between patients in different groups, with different symptoms or cancers and between organisations has informed service improvement and intervention development. My third area of focus is early diagnosis of cancer, largely in collaboration with Georgios Lyratzopoulos (UCL), funded by a series of awards from Cancer Research UK. I am currently a co-applicant on two NIHR funded projects, one focussed on online booking of appointments and another looking at digital facilitation. This has involved the evaluation of integrated care (National Integrated Care Pilots and the South London Integrated Care Pilot) and alternatives to face-to-face consultations such as the NIHR funded Telefirst project (co-applicant). My second area of interest relates to the evaluation of different modes of service delivery. I expanded my portfolio to work with the Cancer Patient Experience Survey – publishing over 50 papers derived from these two sources. IMPROVE had a focus on the GP Patient Survey particularly understanding how the data might be used and interpreted. This was founded on the NIHR funded programme grant IMPROVE where I was the lead statistician. My work has three broad areas of interest, the first of which is patient experience.

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