Skin Analytics and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust win the HSJ Partnership Award for Most Effective Contribution to Improving Cancer Outcomes
Last night, teams across Skin Analytics and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (CWFT) attended the HSJ Partnership Awards at Evolution London, Battersea.
Following their submission titled ‘Using Artificial Intelligence as a medical device to enable Dermatologists to have more time for patients with skin cancer‘ the team took home the award for Most Effective Contribution to Improving Cancer Outcomes.
About the award
Whilst more people than ever before are surviving cancer, steps made towards improving early diagnosis and treatment were hampered by the pandemic. With record high referral levels, the target of returning to pre-Covid performance levels in 2023, set against the new Faster Diagnostic Standard target, is considered ambitious, and there is little chance of achieving these without private sector support and expertise.
The formation of cancer alliances is testament to the fact that collaboration provides the key to realising many of the NHS’s ambitions in cancer service delivery. Cross-sector partnerships are being forged across the country to improve screening programmes, give people faster access to diagnostic tests, capitalise on cutting-edge treatments and technologies, and ensure patients benefit from precise, highly personalised treatments.
This award recognises projects and partnerships that are tangibly improving cancer outcomes at a local, regional or national level.
Judges were particularly interested in projects, improvements and innovations that have been genuinely co-produced by the NHS and private sector. These involved close consultation with patients and achieved high levels of staff engagement.
In addition to winning the award, the team were Highly Commended by the judges for their separate application to award category Most Impactful Use of Technology on Clinical Practice.
The partnership
The following synopsis was submitted to HSJ in late 2024: In 2022, Skin Analytics implemented a skin cancer pathway using DERM, artificial intelligence as a medical device (AIaMD), at Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Trust. Since launching, the service has undergone extensive post-market surveillance and health economic modelling. The pathway has continued to enhance efficiency with skin cancer conversion rates increasing by 67 per cent and 94 per cent of patients avoiding an urgent face-to-face appointment. In essence, the implementation of AIaMD has helped to speed up patient access to skin cancer diagnosis and reserved CWFT’s dermatology capacity to treat patients with skin cancer.
Since this award submission, the Trust has transitioned from pilot to launching AIaMD autonomously in their urgent skin cancer pathway as standard practice, where DERM is being used to assess and discharge patients with benign lesions without clinical review.
Through this partnership, CWFT have led the way for AI in dermatology, forming national conversations, creating guidance and now serving as a blueprint for other healthcare systems across the globe to follow suit.
More on the autonomous deployment of DERM here.
A huge well done to everyone involved and all winners at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2025!