An introduction to IMPROVE UK
With £1million of funding from the Tampon Tax fund, we launched IMPROVE UK - a a groundbreaking programme to tackle health inequalities for women with ovarian cancer.
It is the first major programme to address inequalities and build an infrastructure to develop a legacy of best practice sharing up and down the country.
Ultimately, this will improve survival rates and address inequalities in care for all women with ovarian cancer in the UK regardless of where they live, their age or ethnicity.
What is IMPROVE UK?
IMPROVE UK is the first-ever ovarian cancer quality improvement set of initiatives that represent multi-centre, cross-functional collaborations dedicated to advancing patient care through systems changes.
These pages on QI Central spotlight some of the many experts whose diverse perspectives and experiences shaped shared outcomes over three years of work – core project groups and steering committees providing clinical direction, clinical specialists and healthcare professionals standardising practices, genetic counsellors introducing testing, patient advisors ensuring lived experiences inform strategies, project and QI evaluation managers coordinating execution across seven Cancer Centre hubs taking part throughout the UK.
Featuring those doing the labour not only gives credit where due, but enables direct engagement between teams through investigation, collaborative meetings and future networking as we push progress forward together. We encourage others pursuing quality improvement to connect with these committed healthcare professionals who are willing to share knowledge.
Why do we need IMPROVE UK?
The best ovarian cancer survival rates in the UK match the highest in the world, and yet we currently have one of the poorest average 5yr survival rates in Europe.
The Ovarian Cancer Audit Feasibility Pilot had shone a spotlight on the inequalities faced by women with ovarian cancer based on where they live, their age and ethnicity.
IMPROVE UK is a series of 7 quality improvement projects aiming to improve ovarian cancer survival rates in the UK.
About the IMPROVE UK Pilot Awards
Ovarian Cancer Action awarded funding for seven one-year improvement pilots that addressed the inequalities that ovarian cancer patients face across the secondary care pathway and aimed to ensure equal access to the best quality treatment and care.
IMPROVE UK Pilots needed to address one of the following inequality categories:
- A) Age – Pilots focussed on improving outcomes / patient experience for older women
- B) Minority Groups - Pilots focussed on improving outcomes / patient experience for minority groups (including and not restricted to BAME, LGBTQ+)
- C) Location – Pilots focussed on improving outcomes for women who live in areas of the UK with poorer outcomes
IMPROVE UK Pilots were required to have one of the following objectives:
A) Make changes to treatment pathways to target potential improved patient survival rates and/or improve access to specialised care
and/or
B) To improve patient experience and aim to ensure equal access to the best quality treatment and care
Key Stakeholders in Improve UK
Below we have listed our key stakeholders involved in the IMPROVE UK quality improvement projects. Please don’t hesitate to connect with any member listed here. It is through ongoing collaboration that we will elevate ovarian cancer care across the board.
Marie Claire Platt – Head of Policy & Research OCA
Lesley Woolnough – Health Equality and Improvement Programme Manager OCA
Helen Crisp – QI Lead Evaluation
Professor Sudha Sundar – Chair. Professor of Gynaecological Cancer at University of Birmingham
Professor Iain McNeish – VC. Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre
Mr Andrew Phillips – Clinical Advisor to IMPROVE UK Programme Manager. Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist/lead Clinician for Cancer at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Rebecca Bowen – Medical Oncologist at Royal United Hospital Bath
Professor Mary Wells – Deputy Director of Nursing at Research Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Jo Nunn
Kimberley Ramsay
Natalie Pearce
Amanda Lane
Kerry Burridge
Peg Murphy
Maura McCardle
Mike Ryan – East Midlands Cancer Alliance
Christina Fotopoulou - Imperial
Dr Adrian Andreou - Marsden
Dr Angela George - Marsden
Professor Raji Ganesan -Birmingham
John Butler- Marsden
Phil Rolland - Gloucestershire
Ketan Gajjar - Nottingham
Madeline MacDonald - Sheffield
Mr Kenneth Lim - Cardiff
Mr Kevin Burton - Glasgow
Anna Murray – Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance
Dr Rosalind Glasspool - Glasgow
Dr Aggnieszka Michael - Surrey
Dr Rachel Jones - Swansea
Welsh Cancer Network - Abigail Hayward (NHS Wales Health Collaborative)
Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport - Tampon Tax Fund
Programme Lead – Sadie Pearce
Ovacome Ovarian Cancer Charity
British Gynaecological Cancer Society (BGCS)
Project Team Leads
Dr Mary Cairns -Lead Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist Aberdeen
Mr Nidal Ghaoui Dit Ebef – Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist Edinburgh
Catherine Lamberton – Gynaecology CNS
Elsa Armstrong – Data manager Gynaecology Aberdeen
Regional NCA co-ordinator and admins support in all 4 x centres
The project was a joint endeavor between the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (RUH) and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW)
Mr Jonathan Frost – Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist Bath
Dr Claire Newton – Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist Bristol
Dr Lucy Dumas – Consultant Gynaecological Oncology Bath
Laura Davies – Patient Experience Manager Bath
Olu Kolade - Project Manager
The project was be led by Sadie Jones at the Cardiff centre but the programme was delivered at the three cancer centres (Cardiff, Bangor and Swansea) in Wales for the duration of the funding and led by local teams
Sadie Jones – Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist - Cardiff
Rosalind Jones – Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist Bangor
Courtney McMullen – Snr Clinical Research Fellow in Gynaecological Oncology Cardiff
Experienced clinical leads were identified at each of 7 participating sites and acted as co-applicants on the funding application.
Professor Richard Edmondson
Dr Kathryn Baxter
Dr Dominic Blake – Subspeciality Fellow in Gynaecological Oncology
Dr Stuart Rundle – Gynaecological Oncologist
Helen Manderville - CNS
Yvonne Anderson – CNS Macmillan
Dawn Hodgson – Cancer Prehabiliation Project Manager
Stephen Dobbs – Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist & President BGCS
Davinia Lee - Service Manager, Haematology & Cancer Services
Dr Elaine Leung – Honorary clinical research fellow Institute of Cancer and Genomics Sciences at University of Birmingham
Dr Gabriel Funingana – Clinical Research Fellow at Dept Medical Oncology Cambridge University Hospitals
Mr Janos Balega- Consultant Gynaecologist Oncologist Birmingham City Hospital
Professor James Brenton – Ovarian Cancer Medicine at Cancer Research UKs Cambridge Institute
Dr Marie-Lyne Alcaraz – Programme Manager CRUK Cambridge
Cambridge Patient Advisory Group
Mrs Lisa Bird – Patient Member Birmingham Univ.