South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust successfully deploys and adopts xWave Clinical Decision Support

xWaves’s next-generation clinical decision support improves referral appropriateness, reduces vetting workload and enables auditable clinical governance.

xWave Technologies is pleased to announce that South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with their xWave CDS, bringing evidence‑based clinical decision support directly into the GP and  Trust’s existing referral workflows. The successful deployment has enabled clinicians to select the most appropriate imaging test at the point of referral, helping to improve referral quality, reduce vetting workload and minimise patient harm from unnecessary or incorrect imaging.

As the first Trust to go live within the North East and North Cumbria Imaging Network’s regional programme, which forms part of an eight-Trust regional implementation, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust is leading the way in embedding consistent, auditable guidance that supports safer care and more efficient pathways across the region. xWave CDS integrates national evidence (iRefer) and local pathways into a single, intuitive experience, enabling clinicians to make faster, more confident decisions while strengthening governance and continuous improvement.

As part of the deployment, xWave establishes a comprehensive baseline of the Trust’s real-world imaging practice, capturing referral behaviour, decision-making patterns and site-level variation using their clinical audit tool xWave Insight. This baseline data enables continuous optimisation of CDS guidance, supports governance-led improvement initiatives, and provides measurable evidence of improvements in safety, appropriateness and overall CDS value.

“Seamlessly embedding evidence‑based guidance into existing order comms and referral workflow means clinicians get the best test, faster - reducing unnecessary imaging and freeing vetting teams to focus on the most urgent cases,” said Stefan McDonald, Chief Growth Officer, xWave Technologies.

The North East and North Cumbria Imaging Network welcomed the milestone, noting that the first go‑live of iRefer‑based guidance in the region represents a major step toward more streamlined, consistent patient pathways.

“This is a significant step forward for imaging services across NENC. Having clear, evidence‑based guidance available at the point of referral helps our teams make safer, faster decisions so patients receive the right care at the right time. We look forward to supporting further implementations in the coming months.” said Emma Carter, Diagnostic Programme Manger, NENC Provider Collaborative

xWave Technologies looks forward to supporting the remaining Trusts as the regional roll‑out continues.

xWave Team with South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust Radiology Department Team on go live day