The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has announced that a total of 58 oncology practices, representing 1,000 providers, in 39 states and the District of Columbia have joined CancerLinQ, the organization’s big data initiative.
ASCO launched the cancer database last year to improve the quality of care for people with cancer, and the practices who have joined are now drawing on approximately 750,000 patient records from across the country. Participants range from small private practices to some of the nation’s leading cancer centers including, most recently, Intermountain Healthcare.
CancerLinQ also announced a collaborative agreement with the Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers (CI4CC), representing senior informatics leaders and chief data scientists at the nation’s NCI-Designated Cancer Centers and other major medical and research institutions. This new collaboration follows the recent announcement that CancerLinQ has joined a strategic relationship with SAP on its SAP Connected Health platform.
“For the first time ever, we’re truly combining the expertise of the nation’s oncologists, data scientists, researchers, and other professionals, so that patients can receive high-quality care no matter where they live,” ASCO president Julie Vose, M.D., said in a statement.
CancerLinQ will allow cancer care providers to improve the quality and value of care by analyzing millions of cancer patient medical records, uncovering patterns and trends, and measuring their care against that of their peers and recommended guidelines. The CancerLinQ platform is driven by a non-profit, physician organization, and it leverages the combined expertise of 40,000 of the world’s leading oncologists who comprise ASCO’s membership.
According to a press release, CancerLinQ’s collaboration with CI4CC will bring clinical, genomics, and biomedical informaticists, academicians, and data scientists together with the oncology community to help improve cancer care. CancerLinQ and CI4CC will launch joint initiatives to engage informatics leaders nationally. The initiative also will facilitate cross-participation in a variety of avenues, including key forums, programmatic development, and alignment strategic opportunities to exchange best practices, break down silos, and accelerate the transformation of patient data into meaningful insights to impact care.
“CancerLinQ is beginning to fulfill its mission of empowering the oncology community to improve quality of care and patient outcomes. In a fast-changing oncology landscape, doctors are demanding this kind of collaboration and support so they can easily stay on top of new evidence and new treatment approaches, and deliver exactly the care their patients need,” CancerLinQ LLC chief executive officer Kevin Fitzpatrick said in a statement.
