Standardized pathology reports improve data exchange for cancer care


 Researchers have developed a new method to transform static cancer pathology reports into fully interoperable, computable data. Published in JMIR Medical Informatics, this study details the creation of a standardized electronic reporting format for colorectal cancer using SNOMED CT for clinical terminology and HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) for data exchange. The resulting "Structured Data Capture" construct allows complex pathology data to be seamlessly shared between electronic health records and research registries.

This development addresses a major bottleneck in precision oncology: the trapping of critical diagnostic data in non-computable text or PDF formats. By ensuring that pathology reports are machine-readable and semantically consistent, healthcare systems can better aggregate data for population health management, clinical trial matching, and longitudinal cancer research. The successful implementation demonstrates a scalable pathway for modernizing cancer reporting globally.
Read the original article at: https://medinform.jmir.org/2025/1/e76870


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