The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with a new radiology information system (RIS) from Soliton IT.

The contract was awarded in March 2019 and involved the supplier’s Radiology+ RIS application being rolled out across the trust’s sites in Chelsea and Sutton in order to manage clinical workflows within the radiology departments.

While the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a later-than-planned go live date, the system officially went live on 20 July 2020.

During difficult times, the teams involved managed to adapt, including adhering to strict social distancing guidelines, with the Soliton IT team being assigned an on-site base to administer triaging and resolution of issues during a period which would have ordinarily been significantly engaged and “hands-on” with the trust.

Maggie Buckley, programme manager at Soliton IT, said: “The performance of the project team and engagement from the trust has been exceptional.

“We already knew that we were facing obstacles during a very busy period for go-lives, and the additional sanctions of social distancing and unprecedented clinical workloads brought unique difficulties. The Soliton IT team had to quickly adapt their usual methodology to ensure the project was implemented to high standard, whilst considering the Trust’s new social distancing requirements and amplified levels of meticulousness.”

The Royal Marden provides specialist cancer treatment, in collaboration with the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). The trust most recently partnered with IBM to launch its first ever virtual assistant to provide staff with up-to-date information on workplace policies.