Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Group Announces New Project To Develop 'Big Data' Cancer Database
On Wednesday, the American Society of Clinical Oncology announced that it is launching a database that will collect data on hundreds of thousands of individuals with cancer, the Wall Street Journal reports.
ASCO already has developed a prototype of the database, which includes information from the electronic health records of about 100,000 individuals with breast cancer.
Project Details
The database -- called CancerLinQ -- will collect all information that physicians routinely enter into the EHR of a patient with cancer, including:
- Age;
- Gender;
- Cancer diagnosis;
- Treatment;
- Medications;
- Other illnesses; and
- Date of death.
ASCO says that it has developed software that can accept clinical data from nearly any type of EHR system. According ASCO, researchers still are working on ways to transform the data into useful reports and to overcome patient privacy issues.
The organization says that it likely will be 12 to 18 months before physicians can use the first components of the project.
Project Goals
ASCO hopes that health care providers can use the database as a guide for effective cancer treatment practices.
Allen Lichter -- CEO of ASCO -- said that most of the details of cancer treatments are "locked up in medical records and file drawers or in electronic systems not connected to each other." He added, "There is a treasure trove of information inside those cases if we simply bring them together."
Lynn Etheredge -- a consultant with the Rapid Learning Project at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. -- said that the development of the database signifies a "recognition that big data is an imperative for the future of medicine" (Winslow, Wall Street Journal, 3/26).
