Record and publish the symptom-to-diagnosis interval for every cancer, by hospital
How long people wait between first noticing something wrong and being diagnosed is barely measured. Recording it routinely and publishing it by hospital would expose where the system loses time.
The diagnostic interval is the most patient-relevant delay in cancer care and the least measured. Adding first-presentation date and referral dates to cancer registry minimum datasets, and publishing intervals by route and hospital, would let systems see whether delays occur before referral (primary care), in diagnostics, or in specialist queues. Denmark and England collect parts of this; almost no one else does.
- Fragmented care and guideline gaps · Patients fall between specialists, wait for referrals and often do not get the treatment guidelines say they should.
- Most lethal cancers are found late · Screening exists for only a few cancers. Pancreatic, ovarian, liver, oesophageal and most lung cancers are found when cure is unlikely.
- Weak real-world evidence and registries · We do not reliably know what happens to patients after approval, so we cannot tell which drugs deliver in practice.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaA legislated, publicly reported 28-day standard from urgent referral to diagnosis
Shares Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Most lethal cancers are found late.
- IdeaCancer risk scores running automatically in GP records to prompt urgent referral
Shares Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Most lethal cancers are found late.
- IdeaAutomatic weekly linkage of cancer registries to deaths, prescriptions and imaging
Shares SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results), Weak real-world evidence and registries.
- IdeaA single 'cancer check at 60' appointment bundling all screening tests
Shares Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Most lethal cancers are found late.
- IdeaA cancer blood test for older people arriving at A&E with unexplained symptoms
Shares Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Most lethal cancers are found late.
- IdeaA public tracker of how long each country takes to adopt new evidence
Shares SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results), Weak real-world evidence and registries.
- IdeaA national late-effects registry linking treatment exposures to outcomes decades later
Shares SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results), Weak real-world evidence and registries.
- IdeaCheap long-term survival follow-up by linking trial participants to registries
Shares SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results), Weak real-world evidence and registries.