ASCO's approach to a learning health care system in oncology

Abstract

The promise of emerging science and the challenges confronting today's health care system can both be addressed by fully embracing the IoM's vision of a learning health care system. ASCO's initial foray into realizing this vision for oncology shows great promise.

Figure 1.

CancerLinQ process model. The learning health care system in oncology can be represented schematically as two interlocking circles.

Figure 2.

Using an electronic medical record to display decision support. When case data on a simulated patient with breast cancer are entered, clinical decision support (CDS) messages can be opened, if desired, to guide treatment decisions.

Figure 3.

Compliance with performance measures. By clicking on a quality measure, data for compliance appear in real time and level of adherence to the measure is displayed.

Figure 4.

Displaying the data. The breast cancer data have been sorted by stage and treatment regimen, here doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel. The large green circle contains the cases, and the blue labels contain the stage breakdown. By querying the case data for adverse effects, the upper starburst appears, with each node being a separate complication. Clicking on each of those would expand that subset for further analysis. All of this is done in real time; no precalculation is necessary.