Help us test a new version of the Cancer Patient Portal!

The Cancer Patient portal is a secure website where patients can access information about their cancer diagnosis and treatment that is held by the National Cancer Registration Service (NCRS).

We need your help to understand how you would navigate and use the new features available.

Background
The portal was originally launched in ‘pilot’ form in November 2013 for brain tumour patients. Then, in July 2014, we extended to other cancer types, with eleven NHS clinical teams across England offering the portal to patients with melanoma, brain, bowel, prostate and kidney cancer. You can read more about the portal on our blog here.

Now we are developing a new version of the portal to be hosted by Patients Know Best (PKB) that will allow you to securely access your NCRS records alongside tools and information that will better help you manage your needs throughout your cancer treatment.

How it will work
Once registered on the website and verified by a health professional from a clinical team involved in your care, you will have an individual password to log in and securely access your NCRS record. Initially, you may only see past data about your cancer diagnosis and treatment however CRUK is planning to work with PKB and NHS clinical teams across England to allow this information to be regularly and automatically updated. The information in your account will be your personal and confidential record to securely view, store, share and use however you choose.

Get involved
To make sure we are providing a website or ‘portal’ for cancer patients that is useful and easy to use, we would like you to help us test the Cancer Patient Portal to understand how users will use the website, where users will expect to find specific information, and to help us make sure the content is relevant.

This will require you to log in to a ‘dummy’ or test account of the website over the internet, complete some tasks based on some of its features and talk us through your thoughts. You don’t have to worry about doing anything wrong as we are testing the use of the portal and not testing you!

Testing will take place in January and February 2016 with an informal one-hour discussion session at CRUK’s London offices.

If you would like more information or to register your interest, please email cancerpatientportal@cancer.org.uk

Please note that places are limited so register your interest early to avoid disappointment.

  • Hi Helen, I wish they would set up something like this in Canada. It sounds like an excellent way to help cancer patients to be a fully active participant in their treatment program. Perhaps I will shake up a few people here to put the bug in their ears.

    Good luck with this. I think everyone involved will gain with this process.

    Lorraine