Clinical Genomic Sequencing Reports in Electronic Health Record Systems Based on International Standards: Implementation Study

Abstract

Background: To implement standardized machine-processable clinical sequencing reports in an electronic health record (EHR) system, the International Organization for Standardization Technical Specification (ISO/TS) 20428 international standard was proposed for a structured template. However, there are no standard implementation guidelines for data items from the proposed standard at the clinical site and no guidelines or references for implementing gene sequencing data results for clinical use. This is a significant challenge for implementation and application of these standards at individual sites.

Objective: This study examines the field utilization of genetic test reports by designing the Health Level 7 (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) for genomic data elements based on the ISO/TS 20428 standard published as the standard for genomic test reports. The goal of this pilot is to facilitate the reporting and viewing of genomic data for clinical applications. FHIR Genomics resources predominantly focus on transmitting or representing sequencing data, which is of less clinical value.

Methods: In this study, we describe the practical implementation of ISO/TS 20428 using HL7 FHIR Genomics implementation guidance to efficiently deliver the required genomic sequencing results to clinicians through an EHR system.

Results: We successfully administered a structured genomic sequencing report in a tertiary hospital in Korea based on international standards. In total, 90 FHIR resources were used. Among 41 resources for the required fields, 26 were reused and 15 were extended. For the optional fields, 28 were reused and 21 were extended.

Conclusions: To share and apply genomic sequencing data in both clinical practice and translational research, it is essential to identify the applicability of the standard-based information system in a practical setting. This prototyping work shows that reporting data from clinical genomics sequencing can be effectively implemented into an EHR system using the existing ISO/TS 20428 standard and FHIR resources.

Keywords: data exchange; electronic health record; genomics; information system; standardization.

Figure 1

Implementation of the clinical next generation sequencing (NGS) report viewer. DB: database; EHR: electronic health record: FHIR: Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources; ISO/TS: International Organization for Standardization Technical Specification; SNP: single nucleotide polymorphism; SNUBH: Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.