Health IT Vendors to Support USCDI + Cancer Data Elements
Several health IT vendors have made commitments to adopt the core data elements of the Enhancing Oncology Model (EOM) and to support USCDI + Cancer.
The EOM is a value-based cancer care model developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to lower costs, bring effective patient-centered care, and improve outcomes for those facing a cancer diagnosis.
The USCDI+ initiative supports the identification and establishment of domain or program-specific data element lists that operate as extensions to the existing United States Core Data for Interoperability.
USCDI+ is a service ONC provides to federal and industry partners to establish, harmonize, and advance the use of interoperable data element lists that extend beyond the core data in the USCDI in order to meet specific programmatic and/or use case requirements.
Commitments to adopt the core EOM data elements and to support USCDI+ Cancer were made by Epic; Oracle; Ontada, a McKesson business; Meditech; Flatiron; and ThymeCare. CVS Health and Athenahealth are working to promote these steps in their work as well.
Because these EOM data elements also form the core of USCDI+ Cancer, a planned “data sprint” will seek to drive widespread inclusion in electronic health records of information that is critical to effective treatment.
The USCDI+ Cancer Program is defining real-world data (RWD) elements to further cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, research, and care. Enhanced data exchange for research purposes and clinical care contribute to the U.S. government’s support of persons with cancer.
This is an area of mutual interest and responsibility for agencies across HHS, as well as the White House Cancer Moonshot. This work is collaboratively managed by NCI and ONC with input from CMS, CDC and FDA and includes focus on the following use cases:
• Clinical Trial Recruitment / Matching
• Immune Related Adverse Event (irAE) tracking in Immunotherapy trials
• Enhance the efficiency and timeliness of collection of cancer registry data
• Enhancing Oncology Model (EOM) alignment
The aim of USCDI+ Cancer is to improve the underlying data quality issues, mitigate bias, and improve the reproducibility of methods.
USCDI+ Cancer’s goals are:
• Support adoption and use of interoperable cancer health IT standards and digital health technologies.
• Provide strategic, technical, and regulatory support to advance the development and adoption of cancer specific use cases to more broadly support the cancer community.
• Promote Health IT alignment for federal partners (CMS, CDC, NCI, FDA) to establish use-cases that align with real-world data and infrastructure.
“These commitments are not to us, but to the people who rely on these electronic health record systems, including providers and patients,” said Danielle Carnival, Ph.D., Deputy Assistant to the President for the Cancer Moonshot, in a statement. “We commend this voluntary action from leaders in the electronic health record developer community, as it will help clinicians provide better treatment for people living with cancer.”
