Hospitals will obtain more data on cancer patients
The Thomayer University Hospital and the University Hospital Na Bulovce have begun to use the software tool I-COP, which has been specifically developed by the Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses at the Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) for cancer centres. The I-COP tool has been designed to combine data from the Czech National Cancer Registry (CNCR) and hospital information systems, which are primarily used to inform health insurance companies about health care provided to patientss.
Using the I-COP tool, the hospitals will get a better insight into the stage and extent of cancer at the moment of diagnosis, and will be better informed about the treatment provided so far, including the information on health care facility which provided that treatment. „Current hospital information systems do not contain detailed parametric data on the diagnosis of most types of malignant tumours, although this information is available in case histories of individual patients,“ said Professor Jitka Abrahamova, head of the Comprehensive Cancer Centre of University Hospital Na Bulovce in cooperation with General University Hospital and Thomayer University Hospital in Prague.
The newly implemented software tool, which has been designed as a local web application using the database of a specific health care facility, also offers a comprehensive monitoring of the hospital's catchment area. This feature allows to distinguish local cancer patients from the migrating ones, for the first time in the 50-year history of the Czech National Cancer Registry. These data will make it possible for health care facilities to direct their cancer prevention efforts more effectively, with regard to regional aspects. Another important tool allows the comparison of the hospital's cancer care outcomes with nationwide values. Performance analysis is an additional tool which can be used to increase the efficiency of costly anticancer therapies.
„Data provided by this I-COP tool are also important from the economic point of view. We can provide better treatment to cancer patients and put pressure on health insurance companies to pay for that treatment,“ added Vladimir Rous, IT assistant at the Thomayer University Hospital.
Keywords: Czech National Cancer Registry, hospital information systems, data fusion
9. 5. 2011 Zdravotnické noviny
