UpSMART Accelerator Award
In 2019, Cancer Research UK awarded the digital Experimental Cancer Medicine Team (dECMT) in Manchester an Accelerator Award to enable SMART Experimental Cancer Medicine Trials. Now renamed as Digital Cancer Research as part of the National Biomarker Centre, the team collaborates with colleagues in the EU, including those from Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori Milano and Instituto de investigación Oncologica de Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona to ensure equitable access to digital healthcare products.
The ambition of their new programme, entitled “UpSMART”, is to ‘digitalise up’ experimental cancer medicine centres across the UK, Italy and Spain – providing clinical teams with digital tools for real-time access to a wealth of patient data and enabling faster decision making.
The UpSMART Digital Clinical Trials Conference 2024
An UpSMART Digital Clinical Trials conference was held at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th November 2024 to discuss the current state of digital and AI transformation of experimental cancer medicine, the challenges faced by researchers and the opportunities ahead.
The event brought together a multidisciplinary, international group of speakers and attendees from across the UK, Italy, France and Spain.
The conference was centred around three scientific sessions on:
- Patient-centred digital cancer trials: Session Chair: Duncan Jodrell; Patient Representative: Yvonne Adebola
- Evidence and evaluation: the route to implementation: Session Chair: Harriet Unsworth; Patient Representative: Richard Stephens
- Safe and ethical AI in cancer: Session Chair: Louise Carter; Patient Representative: Ceri Steele
Sessions were chaired by an academic and patient representative, emphasising the importance of the patient voice and journey in accelerating this research.
Miren Taberna, Chief Scientific Officer at Savana, giving a talk titled: "The SAVANA study: AI for EHRs".
Arsela Prelaj presenting to the UpSMART Accelerator Award conference audience.
Academic, industry and patient talks
Alongside academic, industry and NHS talks, attendees heard from Yvonne Diaz, a patient advocate with incurable stage four ALK-positive lung cancer, who is the current Chair of ALK+ International and a Member of the Board of ALK Positive Inc., charities focused on funding research and advocacy to improve the life expectancies for people living with ALK-positive cancers.
Poster Session and Networking
A poster session was also hosted and a conference prize for Best Poster sponsored by Evionva was awarded to Dr Saif Ahmad, Academic Consultant Clinical Oncologist, University of Cambridge. Dr Ahmad’s poster addressed reducing inequity in clinical trials access, with a particular focus on enabling blood test monitoring from home.
If you would like to learn more about the digital tools developed under UpSMART then please visit the UpSMART website or email DCR@CRUK.manchester.ac.uk.
Dr Saif Ahmad won the UpSMART Accelerator Award Best Poster competition.
Professor Caroline Dive presenting at the UpSMART Accelerator Award conference.
