The Whitehouse has issued a statement declaring its commitment to improving cancer care by ensuring electronic health records (EHRs) contain all of the information required for doctors to provide excellent patient care.
The adoption of the United States Core Data for Interoperability Plus Cancer (USCDI+ Cancer) will see the introduction of a “recommended minimum set of key cancer-related data elements” for inclusion in a person’s EHR.
Building on the Biden Cancer Moonshot initiative, the Enhancing Oncology Model (EOM), which launched in July 2023 with the aim of improving quality and reducing costs for cancer patients; the new USCDI+ Cancer initiative has been developed in collaboration with EHR developers, who have “voluntarily committed to adopt and accelerate a set of cancer data elements needed for the EOM”, including information on treatment history, test results, and disease status.
Dr Danielle Carnival, deputy assistant to the President for the Cancer Moonshot, said: “These commitments are not to us, but to the people who rely on these electronic health record systems, including providers and patients. 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.”
EHR developers committing to adopting core EOM data elements and supporting USCDI+ Cancer include Oracle, Meditech, and ThymeCare. The Whitehouse’s statement calls for further support from the “entire community” to help achieve its goals in improving cancer care, and to “drive biomedical research and innovation”, highlighting the need to improve data standardisation, interoperability, and sharing, to deliver improved outcomes for cancer patients.
To learn more about USCDI+ Cancer, please click here.
In other news from the US, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced that it has finalised its Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing (HTI-1) rule, which focuses on advancing patient access, interoperability and standards.
