|
The UPMC Cancer Centers
UPMC Cancer Centers, an international leader in cancer treatment
and research, is one of the largest clinical care networks for
cancer in the United States. Working in tandem with the
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), which
comprises the academic and research activities for cancer at the
University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center (UPMC), UPMC Cancer Centers offers patients the
latest advances in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and
treatment at more than 40 locations throughout western
Pennsylvania. It is the only center in the region with the elite
Comprehensive Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer
Institute.
Consolidating Data Collection
With UPMC hospitals, stand-alone cancer centers and physician
offices administering more than 26,000 new unique cases
annually, the demand for registry is huge. In order to meet the
challenge of collecting and reporting data for such a widespread
network, including 12 hospital-based facilities, five
stand-alone clinics, and 28 hematology/oncology offices, UPMC
selected IMPAC’s MRS® Cancer Registry software.
“Quite simply, the job would be impossible for our 37 cancer
registry specialists without the MRS system. It has eliminated
the duplication of effort of manual data entry to provide us
with completely paperless reporting,” said Sharon Winters,
director, registry information services. “Additionally, with
many of our registry staff working from home with the
implementation of electronic health records in some of our
institutions, MRS provides the flexibility and adaptability to
support a very productive telecommuting environment.”
Each UPMC facility and physician office has a database
identified in the MRS system. Patients can be seen at multiple
facilities,
and their records can be viewed across the entire network.
Reporting can be performed on any single facility or combination
of facilities. The reporting tools provide the ability to
combine common patients in order to count unique cases.
Enriching Research Data
Currently, UPCI’s Research Information Service’s
disease-specific registry specialists are compiling data for
prostate, melanoma and skin diseases, and head/neck
malignancies. The center now has disease-specific registry
specialist positions in the specialty areas of prostate, head
and neck, breast/gynecologic, thoracic/esophageal,
gastrointestinal and hematologic malignancies. Specialized data
not only supports ongoing research efforts, but also is useful
when pursuing new research grants. “We are leading the charge to
improve the value of cancer data across Pennsylvania through our
participation in both the Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance
Bioinformatics Consortium (PCABC) and the Pennsylvania Cancer
Control Consortium (PAC3),” explained Winters. “Our
disease-specific registrars work closely with clinicians,
researchers and the Health Sciences Tissue Bank (HSTB) to not
only coordinate data needs, but to also act as honest brokers to
de-identify protected health information so that data can be
used for research purposes.”
The Value of Data
Today’s healthcare policy and practices demand greater
efficiency, increased productivity, stricter accountability,
tighter security, and more rigorous cost containment. The
ability to access and interpret cancer data, easily and cost
effectively, is becoming increasingly critical for financial
health and the quest for better treatment opportunities and
options for cancer care. Requirements of data to be collected
are complemented with benchmarking data from IMPAC’s National
Oncology DataBase™ (NODB™) and Cancer Information Reference
File™ (CIRF™). The NODB and CIRF contain aggregated data from
users of its registry software while IMPAC’s Oncology Data
Alliance lets IMPAC cancer centers share data for outcome and
quality studies.
|
Challenge:
Collecting and reporting
data for a
widespread network
