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Building the evidence for safe obstetric emergency care during the pandemic

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic the Thiscovery team and colleagues at THIS Institute worked together - remotely and at speed - to support maternity professionals in developing new safety procedures. In doing so we also created a new way of working online to involve large numbers of people to design changes or improvements to the way healthcare is delivered.

Members
160+ members as of November 2026, from cancer multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), operational and clinical leads (trusts, Cancer Alliances, policy), data and analytics staff (including national cancer audits), and a dedicated patient and public group.
What can members do?
Members can connect with their tumour-specific MDT peers across organisations, share learning, and take part in research that aims to improve cancer care. The research team can recruit and engage clinicians, managers, analysts and patients in one place, gather views through surveys and polls, and co-design and test improvements with the people who deliver and receive care.
Impact
CanDo gives research projects a ready, engaged community of the people who deliver cancer care, starting with the NIHR-funded TACTIC project on timely access to treatment.
Delivered on behalf of:

What we did

  • Worked from THIS Institute's and LSHTM’s brief to design and build a central CanDo space that explains the community's purpose and routes members to the right space.
  • Created separate spaces for breast, bowel, lung and oesophageal cancer MDTs, plus a space for other cancer MDTs, so the community can expand over time.
  • Set up a project space for the TACTIC project, with surveys, files and a calendar to support research activity.
  • Provided FAQs and a user guide to help members get started.
  • Trained community administrators at THIS Institute.
  • Provide continual admin support.

Key insights

1

Supporting the TACTIC project (Timeliness of Access to Cancer Treatment: Improving Care), an NIHR-funded study identifying causes of delays to curative treatment, co-designing process improvements, assessing the impact of delays on outcomes and evaluating solutions.

2

Connecting tumour-specific MDTs so members of breast, bowel, lung and oesophageal teams can share learning with peers across organisations.

3

Linking clinical teams with data and audit staff, including those working on national cancer audits.

4

Keeping patients and the public involved through their own group linked to the timely treatment work.

Community in action

CanDo launched in June 2026 and is still in its early growth phase. Its design pairs a broad improvement community with focused research spaces, so a project like TACTIC can recruit and co-design with the people who know cancer services best. CanDo has started with four cancer types and is set up to expand.

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Jay Dean-Lewis

Insights Programme Developer
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