Improving the lymphoma patient journey : addressing the service availability conundrum

![CDATA[This paper describes research-in-progress in the area of cancer services improvement at a regional hospital in New South Wales Australia. Specifically the research is interested in how GPs treating patients with suspected Lymphoma, can access specialist diagnostic appointments in a fast and simple manner. The proposed solution suggests the design of a web portal which will allow GPs to request appointment availability searches of service provider appointment databases in real-time, based on specialty, next available, service type (public/private) and/or geographic location. Once an appropriate appointment has been agreed with the patient the GP will then use the web portal to book the appointment and transmit consented patient data including relevant test results. Initial testing of the critical functionality around appointment availability data entry and searching has been completed, whilst funding for full development is currently being sought. The proposed solution overcomes an identified barrier to current diagnostic testing access and has the potential to reduce the time taken to confirm the presence of lymphoma and get the patient to potentially life-saving treatment. This solution also has the potential to be expanded into other time-critical specialist domains.]]