NPCR-AERRO ePath Reporting Workgroup
Purpose and Goals
The information collected and included in the pathology laboratory reports represents a critical data source for state cancer registries. Currently, some registries still lack the resources either to obtain and process paper pathology reports or to implement their own electronic pathology (ePath) reporting systems. Many laboratories lack resources and infrastructure to implement ePath reporting. The need to retrieve data from the pathology report in a more efficient and timely fashion is driving the development of an automated electronic process for accessing and using pathology reports to identify cancer cases.
NPCR-AERRO's goal is to implement electronic pathology reporting from laboratories at the national, state, and local levels to the appropriate state cancer registries. Activities are focused on working with the national laboratories and laboratory information system vendors to implement electronic reporting of pathology reports according to the NAACCR Pathology Laboratory Electronic Reporting Volume V standard and the business rules defined in the NAACCR Electronic Pathology (E-Path) Reporting Guidelines.
eMaRC Plus
Electronic Mapping, Reporting, and Coding (eMaRC) Plus, the newest Registry Plus™ application, is a software tool developed to view and work with HL7 files and messages. The application is developed collaboratively by participants in NPCR-AERRO's ePath Pilot Project and programmed by the Registry Plus Development Team.
Activities and Timeline
Modeling
| Activity | Status | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Update models in the EPath Reporting Guidelines to accommodate the reporting of the CAP Cancer Checklists | Planned | None |
Analysis and Design
| Activity | Status | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Work with LabCorp to develop the Health Level Seven (HL7) v.2.3.1 ORU message of pathology reports using the NAACCR Volume V standard. | Complete | September 2006, February 2009 |
| Use the HL7 Messaging Work Bench tool to validate the HL7 v.2.3.1 message received from LabCorp. | Complete | June 2007 |
| Work with LabCorp and state cancer registries to identify and/or develop a methodology to filter out the appropriate cancer pathology reports for transmission. | Complete | May 2006, August 2008 |
| Develop a tool to retrieve pathology reports in the HL7 ORU message and HL7 pipe-delimited format from the PHINMS queue at the state health department and process the pathology reports for inclusion in the state cancer registry software. | Complete | September 2006 |
| Enhance design of eMaRC Plus tool. See specific planned enhancements. | Ongoing | Not applicable |
| Analyze and evaluate text mining and natural language processing technologies. See Evaluation of Open Source Text Mining Tools for Cancer Surveillance: Phase I: Understanding text Mining and Identifying Tools [PDF-300KB]. | In progress | None |
| Map CAP electronic Cancer Checklist (eCC) data elements to required NAACCR standards | In progress | August 2010 |
Implementation
| Activity | Status | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Write a final report [PDF-2MB] for Phase 1 of implementing electronic pathology laboratory reporting from a national laboratory to state central cancer registries | Complete | November 2007 |
| In eMaRC Plus, implement a negation finder called Negex, a process used by virtually all natural language processing tools to identify negated terms | Completed | April 2010 |
| Coordinate ePath Reporting Workgroup meetings with states, labs, NAACCR, and others to reach consensus on various components of ePath reporting | In progress | None |
| Implement PHINMS in all NPCR-funded state cancer registries. See map above for progress. | In progress | None |
| Implement ePath Reporting in Bostwick Laboratories | In progress | None |
| Implement ePath reporting in at least one additional national laboratory (Quest, CBLPath, Caris, US Labs, Dianon) with all NPCR-funded state cancer registries | In progress | None |
Contact Us:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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