Guy’s Cancer Real World Evidence during COVID-19:
Guy’s Cancer Real World Evidence is a collaboration between clinicians at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust (GSTT) and epidemiologists at King’s College London, using anonymised routinely collected clinical patient data to guide quality improvement/research and patient care.
Following the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 our partnership accelerated. Harnessing academic research and clinical analytics, we prioritised rapid high-quality data collection ensuring findings directly influenced local care pathways and (inter)national policy. No academic or NHS institution could deliver this work alone – hence this analytics partnership has proven to be of high value for both the patients and staff of our NHS Trust.
Whilst the COVID-19 research and innovation landscape has led to a plethora of publications in the context of cancer, there also exists a need to gain good understanding of the actual risks associated with COVID-19 for cancer patients in terms of oncological outcomes and quality of life. By undertaking a deep dive into the data and experience of an apex Cancer Centre in London and its wider Cancer Alliance, our Partnership aimed to investigate both the indirect and direct impact of COVID-19 on cancer care. A better understanding of the reality of cancer patients during COVID-19 has helped us readapt current prediction models. Our partnership has facilitated the validation of insights and co-development of a mitigation and resilience plan (lessons learnt) that has not only informed our local cancer network, but also the wider NHS.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is a large NHS multi-specialty trust in central London. The catchment area is a population of 1.3 million over 6 Boroughs. Guy’s Cancer Real World Evidence (RWE) partnership has enabled understanding of the interplay between COVID-19 and cancer from the start of the pandemic. This RWE programme has been established as a strategy to improve and internalise rich datasets within Guy’s Cancer, thereby amplifying our RWE data science capabilities and allowing us to work on challenging cancer research questions.