Unlocking innovation in cancer care: A call to action for system-level change (AstraZeneca sponsored)

The conversation was rich, honest, and at times frustrating, but ultimately hopeful. It was clear that while innovation is happening, its adoption remains slow and fragmented, especially in cancer care, where the need for progress is both urgent and deeply personal for many.

As someone coming from an NHS background and supporting industry collaborations, these insights are invaluable. They reveal not only the gaps in our current system but also where targeted collaboration between NHS bodies, industry, and policy frameworks could unlock transformative progress.

Innovation is happening – but in silos

Many clinicians shared examples of impactful, locally developed innovations – such as bite-sized patient education videos, digital pre-assessment tools, and AI-driven triage systems – that are reducing wait times, improving patient experience, and easing pressure on clinical teams. Yet these successful models are rarely scaled.

Why? In many cases, the issue is not innovation itself, but implementation. There is a lack of central infrastructure to support adoption. Every trust must navigate digital governance, information governance (IG), and procurement processes independently. This results in duplication of effort and stalls progress that could, and should, be system-wide.

Fragmented funding and unclear commissioning

Another recurring theme was the challenge of securing sustainable funding. Innovations that fall outside current commissioning priorities often rely on short-term support from charities or the pharmaceutical industry. Yet even when external funding is available, uptake is inconsistent – many trusts hesitate due to concerns around long-term sustainability or perceived conflicts of interest.

Clinicians and digital leads called for greater clarity on what level of evidence commissioners require to adopt new tools or services. A NICE-style framework for digital and non-medicinal innovations could help. Crucially, there needs to be a clearer mechanism for commissioning innovations that demonstrate operational or patient value, even if clinical trial-style evidence is not applicable.

The missing middle: implementation capability

What also became clear during the discussion is that while innovation is being created and funded, there is a critical gap in implementation support. Many frontline teams lack the headspace or resources to translate innovation into everyday care. Understanding who needs to be involved, how long adoption will take, and what change management is required is often underestimated.

There’s an opportunity here for the NHS to develop regional or national implementation hubs that provide support to integrate new tools into existing workflows.

AI, digital, and the role of industry

Artificial intelligence and digital tools are rightly seen as key enablers of future cancer care. From translating patient information into multiple languages to generating pre-filled consent forms and identifying clinical trial candidates, the potential is vast. However, each of these technologies faces a similar barrier: the lack of a centralised, trusted framework for validation and deployment.

Stakeholders asked: why must each trust independently assess and approve the same tool? Why can’t IG and digital approvals be done once, centrally? If we could resolve this, we would accelerate adoption and reduce variation.

From an industry perspective, “we can play a more proactive role, not only in funding innovation, but in connecting best practices across the system”. There’s also a strong case for pharma to collaborate, creating shared resources such as innovation hubs, workforce development schemes, or pan-NHS access programmes.

The opportunity ahead

The takeaways from this event were clear. There is no shortage of ideas or energy within the NHS. What’s missing is:

• A cohesive infrastructure that supports innovation from conception to scale – there is a need for a clearer commissioning framework, faster approval pathways, and shared implementation capacity;
• Creating headspace for future strategic thinkers – benefiting both patients and staff, through encouraging innovation, reigniting motivation and increasing staff retention; and
• There is also a cultural opportunity: to shift from viewing industry involvement with caution to embracing it as a strategic lever, when approached transparently and with patient benefit at the centre.

If we are to meet the growing demands of cancer care with the tools of tomorrow, we must collectively create a system where innovation isn’t the exception, but the norm.