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University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute

UPMC Cancer Centers uses Elekta Cancer Registry Software to Reduce Reporting Costs, Boost Value of Research Data

 
More than 40 locations, including 12 hospitals, five standalone clinics, and 28 hematology/oncology offices.

  • Challenge: Collecting and reporting data for a widespread network.
  • Solution: Employing the METRIQ® system across registry services to enrich research data.
  • Results: The UPMC Cancer Centers eliminated duplication of effort and manual data entry to provide complete paperless reporting and consolidate data needs.
 University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute

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 Elekta Software’s METRIQ Cancer Registry software.
 

Sharon Winters

“Quite simply, the job would be impossible for our 37 cancer registry specialists without the METRIQ 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, METRIQ provides the flexibility and adaptability to support a very productive telecommuting environment.”

Each UPMC facility and physician office has a database identified in the METRIQ 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 Elekta Software’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 Elekta Software’s Oncology Data Alliance lets Elekta Software cancer centers share data for outcome and quality studies.
 

  

Site Snapshot

 

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Center Type: Comprehensive Cancer Centers

No. of Locations:

12 hospital-based facilities
28 hematology/oncology offices
5 stand-alone cancer centers

Staff: 37 Registry staff

Patient Volume: 12,000 unique cases assessioned annually

Physician Offices: 14,000 unique cases per year (based on 2004 figures for reportable cases); another 7,000 non-reportable cases