Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is trialling an approach to reduce patient waiting times and promote the ability for staff to work more flexibly around times that suit patients, with extended opening hours to midnight reportedly allowing the trust to see “306 extra patients” in its first month.
By using remote scanning technology, the imaging pilot allows radiographers to operate the MRI scanner remotely through the Radiology Operations Command Centre (ROCC) platform, with hopes that this model could also be applied across other services for waitlist reductions and improvements in patient choice.
The trust has shared that the pilot has seen “the waiting time of patients attending the extended hours service reducing by over two thirds”, also highlighting low DNA rates and positive patient feedback around the increased availability of appointments.
Abdifatah Jama, a radiographer taking part in the pilot, noted that the ROCC system was “easy to use”, and the benefits the new appointments would offer for reducing pressure at main sites “so that very urgent patients can be seen and scanned properly”.
The pilot will run to the end of July 2025, with its results set to “inform future decisions around imaging at the trust”.
Innovations across patient pathways
We caught up with Peter van Ooijen – professor of AI in Radiotherapy and coordinator of the Machine Learning Lab at University Medical Center Groningen, and former president of the European Society of Medical Imaging Informatics (EuSoMII) – for a recent interview, to talk about new technologies and future directions for medical imaging and radiotherapy. Peter shared how innovations in AI would help “make healthcare more sustainable”, personalising treatments and supporting healthcare staff in managing increasing demand.
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust’s latest strategy to 2030 focuses on modernising infrastructure, introducing digital tools and technologies supporting productivity, and enhancing digital skills to support modern ways of working. The strategy also looks to accelerate the adoption and “fostering of innovation” in healthcare, including in AI, robotics, and genomics, to deliver “high-quality, personalised care”.
A strategic partnership between the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin and Isla Health plans to enhance patient engagement with personalised digital pathways, to support patients across the entire hospital, including gynaecology, obstetrics, and neonatal care. The programme aims to empower patients to take a more active role in their care and provide clinicians with real-time data to support decision-making.
