Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance has today announced a new partnership with iPLATO, a Huma Company, which aims to help re-engage patients across Wigan and Salford in the Targeted Lung Health Check programme, focusing on early detection and awareness of lung cancer.
- The Targeted Lung Health Check programme aims to reduce the lung cancer mortality rates by ensuring early diagnosis and treatment.
- Using iPLATO’s Population Health service, the programme will look to improve uptake amongst the eligible population.
- The myGP app will target local eligible people through notifications and informational tiles to encourage participation
The Targeted Lung Health Check programme targets individuals who smoke or who have previously smoked, aged 55-74 and is designed to maximise participation and awareness within this age group.
Engaging with up to 35,000 patients in designated Primary Care Networks (which are groups of GP surgeries), the myGP app will feature information to encourage participation in Salford.
Tobias Alpsten, CEO at iPLATO, said: “Our partnership with the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance is a vital step towards mitigating the impact of lung cancer through early detection.
“By leveraging our extensive network and unique population health technology, we are giving patients easier access to find out about the targeted lung health checks preventative and earlier diagnosis care. We are confident in this scalable approach and the benefit it can deliver to other regions too. “
The Targeted Lung Health Check programme is an important initiative in reducing the lung cancer mortality rate by ensuring early diagnosis and treatment. Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 13% of all new cancer cases. The economic burden of lung cancer in the UK amounts to £2.4bn each year, with a death rate from the disease of 56 deaths per 100,000 people annually. Now more than ever, it is important to promote screening and increase early detection to improve patient outcomes.
Greater Manchester is using various communication channels to engage with local people including digital, out of home and print.
Oliver Butterworth, Senior Programme Manager for the Targeted Lung Health Check programme at the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, said: “We want to get the message about attending your free lung health check out far and wide because the evidence shows these checks really do save lives by finding lung cancers at an early stage before people may even have symptoms.
“By working with iPLATO we hope to help further increase attendance at the NHS clinics which in turn helps to transform earlier diagnosis of lung cancer in Greater Manchester.”
With the combined expertise of iPLATO and the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, the programme is set to be a key part of the transformation of earlier diagnosis of lung cancer in Greater Manchester.
Luke Wyatt, Director – Cancer and Commissioning at iPLATO said: “We are delighted to partner with the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance on this crucial initiative.
“Our objective is to encourage large-scale participation in the Targeted Lung Health Check programme and ensure timely preventative measures, reducing lung cancer mortality in the region.”