On Thursday 28th November the charity held a seminar at Stonebridge Golf Club and conference centre to outline it's plans to move towards an online booking and results availability service to enable it to handle more tests and for men to be able, if they so desire, to get their results quicker. Sixty five delegates travelled from literally all over the country to support the event which Graham Fulford opened with a dedication to David and Dorothy Baxter-Smith, a heartfelt thanks to a number of Tackle Trustees who had strived to improve early diagnosis for men but all of whom had lost their brave battles against this insidious disease. He then outlined the various development stages and considerable growth of the charity with the need for all the groups it works with to move away from a paper based system.
Roger Bacon, Viv Miles, Peter Weir and Cliff Carter from PCaSO then gave a presentation of how their online booking system, which launched in the spring this year, had quickly transformed their MO, with 98% percent of men who attended an event for over 400 at East Grinstead last Saturday having booked online!
GFCT Trustee, and Charity Manager, Susan Hart then gave a Succinct Summary of her findings over the 6 months she'd been in position and how undoubtedly, in her view, the future lay "online".
The main speaker - Matt Brine from Empresa Ltd then followed with an hours presentation of how he saw the future with all groups retaining their identity and control over events with all results being handled through a new booking website: "mypsatests.org.uk". This would free up all groups to concentrate on developing and supporting more events and would, most importantly, give those men who wanted to, the opportunity to obtain their results (and past results if so required) online by viewing their own personal record. He stressed that men would still have the option of receiving their results by email or letter if that was their wish, because we are all fully aware that some men don't have (and don't want) a computer.
A lively question and answer session followed and Susan Hart confirmed that being freed up from daily manual record inputting she and the GFCT team were ready, willing and able, to support groups during the 2020 transition period. including attending their events where necessary and practical.
Matt's presentation was streamed online via Facebook and is available to watch on this website by clicking here.
Following a lunch break with much positive feedback from the delegates Bobby from Boston Scientific gave an enlightening presentation on their new breakthrough product SpaceOAR, which is designed to improve the outcomes of patients who opt for Radiotherapy.
Graham Fulford then gave a brief update on the current laboratory links and how the charity, Empresa and other groups will work together to ensure there is a cost effective, seamless link to ensure results are available quickly as well as accurately.
The conference then broke into group sessions to try the fledgling new system before a tea break and a closing session to discuss the future between the floor and a panel consisting of: Graham Fulford, Susan Hart, Matt Brine and Retired Consultant Urologist Chris Booth who shared his expert knowledge on the current state of prostate screening in the UK.
After many warm handshakes and much chatter about moving positively forward, the delegates wended their way home - hopefully safely!
For a copy of the presentations of Graham Fulford and Susan Hart please click here. If you would like a copy of the presentations of Viv Miles and Matt Brine, please contact Susan Hart by emailing info@psatests.org.uk, and she will happily share it with you.