Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK and around one in five patients arediagnosed after an emergency admission to hospital. Surgery to remove thetumour is the treatment of choice but emergency surgery for bowel cancer comeswith high risk and one in eight patients die from the procedure.
New research aims to improve outcomes for bowel cancer patients by linking data to build a better picture of their journey through care
Background
National clinical audits collect data on the characteristics of patients and their tumour, the care they receive before, during and immediately after surgery, and the outcomes of treatment. However, this data is collected in five separate datasets:
- The National Bowel Cancer Audit contains detailed information on patients and the extent of their cancer.
- The National Emergency Laparotomy Audit collects information about the physiological state of patients and the care they receive around the time of surgery
- Details of the postoperative care are available in ICNARC, a national audit of intensive care
- ONS mortality data provides date, cause and place of death
- The Hospital Episode Statistics dataset (HES) provides information about other outcomes such as surgical complications and unplanned readmission to hospital.
All of these datasets need to be linked so that we can construct the entire patient pathway. This will allow us to identify the processes of care that have the greatest impact on the outcome.
People with lived experience of bowel cancer needed
Researchers based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have an exciting opportunity for two patient/public advisers to be part of a Study Steering Committee.
The research aims to increase the quality of emergency care for patients with bowel cancer in order to save lives and improve outcomes. The study will look into ways of linking data to build a better picture of the patient pathway for bowel cancer patients.
The team are looking for two people with experience of bowel cancer and/or emergency bowel surgery as a patient, carer or relative.
The commitment is to attend two-hour Study Steering Committee meetings to be held three times a year, plus additional email and telephone correspondence in between meetings and some reading.
Read a role description
If you or someone you know qualifies and would be interested please contact Dr Kate Walker at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on Kate.Walker@lshtm.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 7869 6607
