Across the NHS, diagnostic backlogs have become one of the most stubborn pressures on hospitals, but in Cheshire and Merseyside, a quiet data revolution is reshaping how radiology departments operate.
Since March 2024, the region has seen 15,000 fewer patients waiting more than six weeks for essential radiology tests such as CT, MRI and ultrasound scans. Turnaround has been made possible for many reasons including the unlikely hero of Cheshire and Merseyside Imaging Dashboard or CAMDASH.
A source of truth
CAMDASH was created by the Cheshire and Merseyside Radiology Imaging Network (CAMRIN), which brings together 11 NHS trusts. Historically, each trust relied on its own Radiology Information System (RIS) to run activity reports, each one slightly different in method, timing and interpretation. Managers would then submit performance data to NHS England independently.
That fragmented picture made it difficult to understand the true regional demand for imaging, or to spot risks early.
‘With nine of the 11 trusts using the same RIS, the opportunity for collective reporting was clear,' says Iain McDonald, clinical scientist (health informatics) for the CAMRIN. ‘We needed one single point of truth.'
CAMDASH sits on top of a cloud-based data lake, with Power BI providing the analytical interface. It does not hold image data itself, but operational information about how imaging is acquired, reported and managed, everything from waiting lists and turnaround times to equipment utilisation and workforce data.
The platform refreshes daily, giving radiology teams something they never had before: near real-time visibility across the entire region.
Years in the making
Although CAMDASH formally launched in late 2022, its roots stretch back much further. For years, a small number of data specialists had been painstakingly pulling together cross-trust datasets.
Initially developed by a self-taught data analyst who later undertook formal training to refine and optimise the build, CAMDASH has evolved through constant iteration.
The network scoped a full regional solution, prototyping approaches with Microsoft Azure and another web service. Azure won out, largely thanks to NHS familiarity, strong in-house BI skills and Power BI's maturity.
The platform's core architecture was stabilised by 2023, and since then, the team has been in continuous development mode, adding new modules, refining data quality, and expanding functionality.
Breaking down barriers
One of the biggest early hurdles the network faced was navigating information governance across more than a dozen organisations.
While CAMDASH does not hold identifiable patient data, the team still had to secure agreement from every trust on how data would be handled and protected in the cloud. Then came the technical challenge.
‘It was a real headache,' says McDonald. ‘Business intelligence teams in individual trusts often didn't have the time to comb through all the complexities, so solving that centrally was a major breakthrough.'
Cheshire and Merseyside's experience demonstrates that innovation doesn't always require expensive new technology, sometimes it's about bringing existing tools together.
‘It takes a village to build a dashboard,' McDonald reflects. ‘We work incredibly well together as a network, and that level of trust and engagement is what made this possible.'
Not just data
The real measure of CAMDASH's impact is how it changes operational behaviour. For radiology managers and modality leads, the platform provides real-time intelligence that helps them manage demand, allocate staff and troubleshoot bottlenecks.
Departments can track:
- six-week diagnostic performance, a key component of the national 18-week Referral to Treatment pathway
- reporting turnaround times, including new metrics published by the Royal College of Radiologists
- DNA (Did Not Attend) patterns
- equipment age and utilisation, essential for capital planning
- capacity-and-demand trends across all modalities.
‘It's become both a day-to-day operational tool and a strategic planning tool,' says Bonnie O'Sullivan, imaging systems and data lead for CAMRIN.
CAMDASH also plays a growing role in cancer pathway oversight, beginning with the multiparametric prostate MRI pathway. More pathways are due to be added, helping hospitals identify delays or deviations that could affect patient outcomes.
The future
Development of the system continues at a pace. Workforce modules, expanded patient pathways, richer data-quality tools and potential integration of rostering and HR datasets are all planned. Long-term, CAMRIN envisions a single platform that links imaging with pathology, pharmacy and even genomics, allowing disease processes to be understood holistically across the region.
‘You don't always see yourselves as innovative, but within Cheshire and Merseyside, we've realised that we are maybe ahead of the game and we've got something at our fingertips that is really something quite special,' O'Sullivan concludes
