Palantir's NHS cancer app gets plenty of praise, precious few users
Only a handful of NHS trusts are using the cancer app on the controversial £330 million Federated Data Platform (FDP) run by Palantir, while newly released figures raise questions about which trusts are benefiting.
Key points
- Campaign group Foxglove had found that nearly a third of NHS trusts using Palantir's health data platform were performing fewer patient procedures than before it went live and that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital accounted for 84 percent of the reported fall in outpatient waiting lists, while only 16 trusts were using the FDP tool.
- Last year, NHS England said Cancer 360 served 46 registered teams and 239 active users, and processed 52,000 patients.
- It said six trusts reported unique users logging into the Cancer 360 app over the last 12 months.
In June 2025, NHS England said that Cancer 360 "drastically cut down diagnosis times" and referred to a pilot at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, which saw the proportion of patients diagnosed within 28 days climb from 72 percent to 85 percent.
Additional details
- East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust considered using the app but rejected it because there was "no immediate requirement for it," according to its FoI response.
- In its FoI response, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it did not adopt the app because of issues around the metadata requirements.
- In July this year, the UK's statistical regulator told NHS England to ensure ministers are briefed accurately following a row over data used to promote the purported benefits of the Palantir-run FDP.
- It had planned to adopt the platform, leading with Cancer 360, but did not have a date for going live with the app.
- Cancer 360 was designed to bring cancer patients' data from disparate spreadsheets and electronic health records into a central system, helping health professionals prioritize treatment.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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