The challenge

Cancer pathways in the South West face rising demand and workforce constraints, with rural/coastal geography compounding access issues, making traditional, in person pre-assessments for Systemic Anti Cancer Therapy (SACT) time consuming for patients and nurses.

Additionally, the traditional one-off session format risks information being easily forgotten by patients and their families when treatment starts.

Rurality across the South West creates pronounced health inequalities, with patients facing long travel distances and limited public transport options. This makes traditional pre-assessment models particularly burdensome for many patient groups.

Variation in how pre-assessment information was previously delivered resulted in inconsistent patient preparedness and increased anxiety at the start of treatment.

The solution

MySunrise by Technical Health Ltd is a digital health app and web app developed in partnership with NHS cancer teams.

The virtual platform provides standardised information, videos, and checklists that patients can consume in their own time, come back to when they want, and involve family members with. The content is locally configured. Patients can remotely understand what to expect, plan ahead, and feel more in control before their treatment begins, all from the comfort of their own home.

The platform currently provides tumour specific pathway information for breast, bowel, lung, prostate, head and neck, endometrial and colorectal cancers.

MySunrise has digitised the pre-assessment process for SACT, to give patients access to trusted information, videos and local resources in one place, at home, online, while teams run preassessments virtually. This reduces avoidable travel and time, increases patient preparedness, and releases nursing capacity to meet growing SACT demand.

The platform has been designed to support national priorities set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, including shifting care from hospital to community and expanding the use of digital tools to increase patient empowerment and reduce avoidable outpatient activity.

The recent launch of the Web App version has broadened access for patients who prefer not to download apps, and pathway content is now available in multiple languages to support inclusion and reduce digital inequalities.

Founded in 2017, MySunrise was launched as a pilot in 2018 at Royal Cornwall Hospital. Following the programme’s success there, it was then spread and implemented across all five NHS Cancer Centres in Devon and Cornwall with support from the Peninsula Cancer Alliance. 

Our work in partnership

In 2025-26, as part of our Cancer Innovation Challenge, we brokered, supported and evaluated the real-world implementation of MySunrise’s digital pre-assessment process for SACT at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.

We provided:

• Innovation coaching (value proposition, equity/net zero planning, communications)
• Partner brokering
• A formal evaluation to evidence impact and inform scale.

Our support for MySunrise began in 2018 with initial scoping discussions, followed by structured innovation coaching and partner introductions/brokering. A formal evaluation was conducted between November 2023 and May 2024, providing real-world evidence to underpin scale. 

We have also provided bid writing, funding identification and business case development for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to articulate its health inequalities value proposition and build the case for wider adoption.

Our impact so far

Our real-world evaluation of MySunrise in streamlining SACT pre-assessment at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust found that MySunrise improves efficiency, reduces pressure on services, supports sustainability, and enhances patient experience across the NHS. 

In the first seven months of implementation:

• 138 patients saved an estimated 92 hours of travel time (40 minutes per patient)
• 2,760 miles of travel were avoided (20 miles per patient) and associated fuel and parking costs
• 602kg of CO₂ was saved from reduced patient travel
• One hour of nursing time per patient was released back to clinical care as better-informed patients meant appointments were more focused and efficient. The time savings were put back into meeting rising demand for SACT.
• Patients indicated improved confidence and reduced anxiety before starting treatment, and valued being able to revisit information on demand and involve family members more easily. 
• Preliminary user feedback suggested the digital format helped patients feel more prepared and in control, contributing to a smoother start to treatment. 
• Teams noted that improved standardisation reduced unwarranted variation across services. 

Potential benefits:

• Per NHS Trust: Prior case study modelling indicates ~£156k annual benefits per 1,000 patients through fewer appointments and efficiency gains when digital pathways are embedded.
• Scaling: Given regional uptake and real-world evidence, wider implementation could compound savings nationally in line with SACT demand growth.
• Economic modelling also demonstrates potential reductions in Did Not Attends (DNAs) for pre-assessments and improved flow through the SACT pathway, creating further downstream efficiency gains.
• The virtual model supports future sustainability ambitions by reducing the need for estate use and lowering administrative overheads.

Read the full evaluation report here. 

The Cancer Innovation Challenge has given us a chance to bring in an independent, focused evaluation of our work, shining a light on where we have realised success but also on the opportunities to improve and develop our offer.

By helping people stay informed and supported wherever they are, MySunrise is proving that digital innovation can make a real difference in cancer care.”

Dr George Brighton, Managing Director of MySunrise

What’s next?

In 2026-27 we are working with MySunrise to: 

• Extend the virtual pre-assessment model to more tumour sites and neighbouring trusts
• Using evaluation insights to standardise implementation playbooks and strengthen business cases with Integrated Care Boards
• Exploring additional digital tools such as pathway navigation and side effect management, informed by real-world findings
• Developing relationships with industry to explore future opportunities to spread and scale MySunrise offers.

In future iterations, the team plans to integrate patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and symptom-checking modules to expand digital support across the treatment pathway. 

There is interest in collaborating with neighbouring cancer alliances and ICSs to explore national roll-out potential, supported by a refined implementation playbook.

Further work will focus on strengthening digital inclusion, including testing accessibility features and expanding translated content beyond the initial language set.