MySunrise
Digital cancer support to improve patient experience and outcomes
Programme
overview
- Providing free up-to-date information and support tools for patients and their families before, during and after their cancer treatment
- Designed with NHS Cancer teams and integrates into local service delivery
- Improving patient care through an efficient digital-first approach
Partners involved
Health Innovation South West has supported the development, spread and adoption of MySunrise since 2020.
Programme detail
Cancer is one of the Partnership’s five mission areas due to its high prevalence and high mortality rates in the South West. Long waiting times for diagnosis and treatment, a shortage of skilled staff and insufficient equipment in the South West are aggravating the challenges our region faces to tackle cancer.
Background
The Partnership is supporting the ongoing development of MySunrise to accelerate its spread and adoption to improve the quality of care provided to cancer patients in our region.
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.
MySunrise empowers patients and their families to navigate their cancer treatment pathway, ensuring they have the information they need and aiming to reduce some of the anxiety surrounding this, giving patients more control.
Support and Evaluation
Health Innovation South West has supported the spread and adoption of MySunrise, supporting them to create design improvements, evidence values, increase patient engagement, and make their content more accessible across its communities.
We have also provided funding supporting to enable better understanding of how their innovation can specifically address health inequalities, as well as providing support for bid writing, funding identification and business case development for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs.)
Our most recent work with MySunrise has been to support the digital health app and web app, developed in partnership with NHS cancer teams, to digitise the pre-assessment process for Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT). We supported this work as part of our 2025 Cancer Innovation Challenge, providing real-world evaluation and innovation support to the team at MySunrise to understand the impact of the MySunrise pre-assessment tools at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.
Impact from this work
Evaluation findings
Our real-world evaluation of MySunrise in streamlining SACT pre-assessment at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust found:
- 138 patients saved an estimated 92 hours of travel time
- 2,760 miles of travel were avoided
- 602kg of CO₂ was saved
- One hour of nursing time per patient was released back to clinical care, including to manage the increase in demand.
Reduced travel was particularly beneficial for patients in rural and coastal communities. Clinicians also reported that better-informed patients meant appointments were more focused and efficient.
Our evaluation shows MySunrise improves efficiency, reduces pressure on services, supports sustainability, and enhances patient experience across the NHS.
Read the full evaluation report here.
Innovation Support
Our Cancer Innovation Challenge also offered innovation support alongside the real-world evaluation. Our support covered a range of topics that were tailored to the needs and interests of MySunrise including social value advice and guidance, such as undertaking health equity assessments and developing skills in net zero planning to help with environmental sustainability.
Health Innovation South West has also supported brokering new connections and networking with new audiences including industry partners. We have supported dissemination of the work in Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust and the real-world evaluation to key regional and wider stakeholders including Cancer Alliances and the wider Health Innovation Network. The project learning can be implemented into future deployments to support effective deployment and further scale and spread.
Dr George Brighton, Managing Director of MySunrise, said:
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.
