The Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine and GenomOncology recently announced the launch of a new technology, the first discrete genomic results reporting system using the HL7 2.5 format.
Scott Campbell, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of informatics for the Public Health Laboratory and the Pathology Laboratory at the Buffett Cancer Center, said the new system already has gone live in the Buffett Cancer Center’s research database and is being tuned to go live in its EHR system.
HL7 (Health Level Seven International) is the most common communication method to move healthcare data between systems and is used by essentially every hospital in the U.S. and Canada to communicate laboratory test results between electronic health record (EHR) systems.
Campbell said that because of common international technologies, the new system will be compatible with any health system in the country.
“Clinicians need concise, relevant information returned quickly so that they can treat their patients with the best options available,” said Campbell. “By providing easy-to-interpret genomic results to clinicians as rapidly and accurately as possible, we strive to support the highest level of oncology patient care.”
To accelerate the development of the technology, GenomOncology, working in collaboration with the Buffett Cancer Center, developed a proprietary software program called GO-Connect. The program converts complex genetic testing results into a format that is easily incorporated into EHR systems for ongoing patient care.
“This solution addresses one of the most common challenges in healthcare today – streamlining patient information into a manageable, digestible format,” said Manuel J. Glynias, founder and CEO of GenomOncology. Oncologists today often need to open several PDFs and go to multiple portals to obtain the information required to make a treatment decision or assess trial eligibility.”
“We want everybody to use this technology,” Dr. Scott Campbell said. “It’s available free of charge for non-commercial use if you have a license with the National Library of Medicine.”