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List of treatments in different hospitals

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User
Posted 28 Feb 2020 at 23:01

I was talking with a Macmillan nurse today. She has misinterpreted something I said, as she mailed me afterwards and asked for a pointer to the list of prostate treatments available at each hospital.

Well, that would be wonderful, but I'm unaware of any such list. It's difficult to find such a list for many individual hospitals, never mind a compilation containing many/all hospitals. Before I respond saying there's no such thing, I thought I'd just check with the collective wisdom here.

User
Posted 28 Feb 2020 at 23:01

I was talking with a Macmillan nurse today. She has misinterpreted something I said, as she mailed me afterwards and asked for a pointer to the list of prostate treatments available at each hospital.

Well, that would be wonderful, but I'm unaware of any such list. It's difficult to find such a list for many individual hospitals, never mind a compilation containing many/all hospitals. Before I respond saying there's no such thing, I thought I'd just check with the collective wisdom here.

User
Posted 29 Feb 2020 at 17:53
What a good idea that you seem to have stumbled upon by accident?

Why is there no national list of facilities available at each hospital, such as make, model and resolution of MRI scanners, level of minimum PSA lab testing score, etc., etc.

Perhaps someone or two should mention it to Mr Hancock, the Health secretary?

Cheers, John.
User
Posted 29 Feb 2020 at 22:54
A project for 'Prostate Cancer UK' ? Of course treatment and what is used and is variously available evolves and changes, so it would need to be frequently updated and so many hospitals/centres would need to be covered meaning it would be a continuing time consuming task.
Barry
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User
Posted 29 Feb 2020 at 00:16
I don't think there is - you have to search for the urology department on each hospital / Trust website and then read through the consultants' blurb to see what they offer. For new treatments, you can search the Innovations programme but it isn't well established yet. The info is often out of date anyway; if you google 'SpaceOar' it pops up that St James's are offering it as part of the Innovations programme but they actually withdrew SpaceOar last year.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
User
Posted 29 Feb 2020 at 15:30

There's a good task for you and your team Andy.   There was an MRI list, or was it Radiotherapy, doing the rounds not long ago.   


I'd guess that it's fairly hierarchical.  e.g.  Almost every hospital with a Urology Dept will offer a biopsy of both types, hormones, and Active Surveillance.


Less will offer surgery and Radiotherapy.  Even less will offer Brachytherapy.  Less than that will offer more exotic treatments - Barry will give you that list. 


How many hospitals have Macmillan Nurses.


It would be useful, I recall clicking on several hospital websites when I was being diagnosed.

User
Posted 29 Feb 2020 at 17:53
What a good idea that you seem to have stumbled upon by accident?

Why is there no national list of facilities available at each hospital, such as make, model and resolution of MRI scanners, level of minimum PSA lab testing score, etc., etc.

Perhaps someone or two should mention it to Mr Hancock, the Health secretary?

Cheers, John.
User
Posted 29 Feb 2020 at 19:13

I suspect the only way to do this would be for us to build one on a wiki page.
I could supply details for 3 hospitals, and some info for perhaps another 3.

Can anyone suggest a suitable wiki? (It's not encylopedic, so not wikipedia.)

Edited by member 29 Feb 2020 at 19:13  | Reason: Not specified

User
Posted 29 Feb 2020 at 19:27

Spot on John


Had to turf up a lot of data when I first started my journey. Very ah-hoc at best. It’s was several years before my local hospital equipped with latest 3T MRI system opened it up for mpMRIs 🤷🏼‍♂️


A central reference would be excellent maybe with surgeon volume data. Web app which is mobile friendly.

User
Posted 29 Feb 2020 at 22:54
A project for 'Prostate Cancer UK' ? Of course treatment and what is used and is variously available evolves and changes, so it would need to be frequently updated and so many hospitals/centres would need to be covered meaning it would be a continuing time consuming task.
Barry
User
Posted 04 Mar 2020 at 23:08

This only covers MRI but I see in this article published in the Daily Mail that Prostate Cancer UK has calculated figures (but not detailed specific hospitals) https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20200303/281732681530502


I spoke with a radiographer at UCLH Westmoreland Street when having my recent scan, surprisingly only on a 1.5 Tesla MRI machine, as depending on result may determine whether I would be offered further HIFU. I was told that demand is now so great that the machine there (at least) is being used 7 days a week.

Edited by member 04 Mar 2020 at 23:10  | Reason: to highlight link

Barry
User
Posted 05 Mar 2020 at 01:41

Originally Posted by: Online Community Member


I was told that demand is now so great that the machine there (at least) is being used 7 days a week.



Just as they should be, given the paucity of scanners in ‘the best health service in the world’ (I have no complaints about the NHS regarding my PCa), so why not 24/7?


Her Loveliness has just had an appointment for an MRI on her arthritic knees at 4.20 on a Sunday afternoon. If it was 4.20 on a Sunday morning, maybe we could find somewhere to park in the hospital car park!😷😷😷😷😷😷


Cheers, John.

User
Posted 05 Mar 2020 at 08:51

3T systems aren’t slowly being rolled out. I believe they have one at HCA UCLH and London Bridge. There is also a very new Philips 3T system at Royal Berkshire Hospital out in Reading. There were some politics I think with running mpMRIs due to how busy the machine is during normal hours. However you can access it privately at weekends (Sat eve) privately. Costs aren’t bad at all and less lead times.... I found very reasonable plus ask for copy of the DICOM data to take with you if needed. 

User
Posted 05 Mar 2020 at 09:16

Asked about 3T in a support meeting a while back.


They can produce better images for some of the multi-parametric scans. This can be either through higher resolution, or by taking the image faster so there's less movement blurring.


The down-side is they produce more artifacts - things in the images which aren't actually there in practice, and those sometimes look like prostate cancer. This gets much worse if there's any metalwork nearby, even when MRI safe non-ferrous.

User
Posted 05 Mar 2020 at 09:37

Hi Andy


yeah I read some of the tech details as it’s an area of interest for me having done a bit of professional work historically with image DSP’ing and rendering etc


Imaging speed was a massive plus compared to previous experience on an old 1.5T system. 


Location and shielding the the devices is usually pretty well thought out so not much of an issue I most cases.


Artefacts are an issue and the software does a pretty good job cleaning these up. I took my data home after the procedure and within an hour had it imported into my system and was able to visualise it in VR. Took me a while to navigate through all the cross sections. My inexperienced eye picked out a few anomalies in the contrast images. This was confirmed by the radiologist 10 days later and overall classification of PiRADS 4. My good lady says she will never be the same after looking at my nether regions in VR from the inside out 🤓🤖🥴


Plus I’m always mindful of the line... ‘If you want fifty interpretations of scan data ask fifty radiologists’ :-)


TG

 
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