New data platform to share cancer information

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Te Aho o Te Kahu, the Cancer Control Agency, is developing a data platform to support the sharing of cancer related information throughout the health system, called CanShare.

SNOMED CT medical terminology and the FHIR interoperability standard underpin the CanShare platform, which John Fountain, manager, data, monitoring and reporting, will be presenting on at Digital Health Week in Rotorua this December.

He says cancer-related data is held in silos across the health system, which means information is not always available to support clinical decision making. CanShare is intended to share information in real time, at the point of care.

Fountain says Te Aho o Te Kahu has engaged with around 200 frontline health care providers and consumers regarding what information they need and how to describe that data.

“CanShare is clinically led and standards based,” he says.

You’ve read this article for free, but good journalism takes time and resource to produce. Please consider supporting eHealthNews by becoming a member of HiNZ, for just $17 a month.

The Agency is using SNOMED CT to ensure information is being described in a standardised and shareable way and has developed a range of bespoke cancer SNOMED CT reference sets that are going through the Health Information Standards Organisation (HISO).

The Agency is ultimately looking to develop thousands of these reference sets to adequately describe each of at least 50 cancer tumour streams.

CanShare is also based on FHIR integration standards and FHIR Implementation Guides have been developed to support the integration of medical oncology, radiation oncology, structured pathology, and end user systems.

“We want information to move and flow throughout the healthcare system seamlessly so that authorised people can gain access to that information in a timely manner,” he says.

Fountain says Te Aho o Te Kahu is working with other agencies that hold cancer data, such as the New Zealand Cancer Registry, Children's Cancer Registry, and National Screening Unit, to adopt the same standards to enable their information to be more seamlessly shared across the system.

“There's also a whole range of NGOs, charities, academic institutions and hospitals that have small and large cancer registries, which are further siloed,” he says.

“They all describe things differently and are not connected. We have an interest in supporting these groups to adopt the same standards so that their information is more accessible and shareable, and so we can get value out of these sets.”

“If we can bring these things together, that will create an absolute wealth of information to inform us about cancer care, outcomes and how to improve the cancer journey for patients.”

Picture: John Fountain, manager, data, monitoring and Reporting, Te Aho o Te Kahu


To comment on or discuss this news story, go to the eHealthNews category on the HiNZ eHealth Forum

Read more Interoperability news

Return to eHealthNews.nz home page