Six hospitals in the central Netherlands’ Oncomid cancer network have jointly decided to support the regional oncological multidisciplinary team meetings (English: MDTs / Dutch: MDOs) through Vitaly MDT – a digital collaboration platform implemented by Parsek.
This regional initiative aims to improve the quality of care for cancer patients in the region by increasing clinical efficiency, improving user satisfaction and enhancing the automated data exchange for patients referred to regional MDT meetings.
The initiative is being carried out as part of the Dutch national program, “The Right Care in the Right Place,” which emphasises the importance of having the correct information in the right place. It includes a complete ecosystem of IT partners who will support real-time data exchange, security, and integration based on open standards.
The challenge of organising large amounts of data
One of the significant challenges was the need to manage and organise large amounts of data, which can become overwhelming and difficult to handle without proper tools.
Registering and scheduling patients, preparing, and conducting MDTs currently require a great deal of manual work. The exchange of patient data for the MDT is done manually (sending DVDs by post) or via a portal where patient data is uploaded manually.
Another challenge was ensuring data security since storing sensitive information must be protected from unauthorised access.
Improving the quality of cancer care services in Oncomid
DDMN aims to improve the quality of cancer care in the Oncomid network for Prostate | Bladder | Kidney | Testicle (Urology) and Uterus | Cervix | Ovary | Vulva (gynaecology) patients by providing an efficient digital support system for the multidisciplinary oncology teams in the region. It focuses on enhancing the automated exchange of patient data for patients referred to regional oncology multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTs). The project’s objectives include improving the quality of care, increasing clinical and administrative efficiency, and improving user satisfaction.
The project is being implemented by a comprehensive ecosystem of IT partners, including Parsek, Open Line, Philips Enovation, Chipsoft, Epic, Hyland and EasyCare. The whole ecosystem aims to simplify the logistics and coordination of multidisciplinary teams and will be adjusted to fit the needs of any clinical speciality which requires shared MDT decision-making and link to national standards and healthcare information exchange initiatives.
Vitaly MDT platform: Automated data exchange for increased efficiency and made to scale
The Vitaly MDT platform supports the standardised multidisciplinary team meeting (MDT) process for the urology and gynaecology tumour groups, with the ability to scale and support new clinical specialities within the existing platform.
Vitaly collaboration platform supports the standardised MDT of Oncomid MDT working so that:
- The practitioner can register patients from his own Electronic Health Record (EHR) and can choose patient data that must be assessed in preparation and must be available.
- The scheduler can schedule patients on a specific date and can assess whether the patient data required for the MDT is complete.
- The chairman, the radiologists, the pathologists and the registering specialists can see lists of patients to be discussed and can prepare the MDT substantively by retrieving patient data from the relevant EPR in real-time and making notes on this.
- The chairman can lead the MDT by showing overview screens with patients to be discussed and retrieving patient data in real-time from the relevant Electronic Patient Record (EPR).
- The scribe can write down the findings and conclusions during the MDT.
- After completing the MDT, the participants have the MDT report available in a structured manner in their own EPR so that they can draw up the letters in their own EPR.
An important requirement is that the entire solution is made according to national standards so that the infrastructure can be scaled up to other regions and the infrastructure can be linked to national infrastructure in the long term.
Which standards are being used?
The solution can be launched from within an existing client’s Electronic Medical Record (Epic, Easycare, Hix, etc.), which is done following the SMART on FHIR framework and FHIR standard for the exchange of clinical data.
By doing so, the whole context of the Electronic Medical Record (patient, request, etc.) is automatically transferred to Vitaly. The MDT workflow is done using the Vitaly MDT solution. It follows the Cross-enterprise Tumor Board Workflow Definition (IHE XTB-WD), levering both XDS.b and PIX/PDQ standards for the exchange of relevant clinical documentation as well as patient data.
Last but not least, audit trail and security considerations are covered with appropriate ATNA logging as per the IHE specification.
The benefits in the Oncomid region
There are many short- and long-term benefits associated with building a regional, unified platform across the Oncomid cancer network.
Benefits for patients:
- Increased overall patient experience & satisfaction.
- Better and more equal care options due to access to the best regional expert teams.
- Increased trust in the care process due to shared decision-making.
Benefits for regional MDT teams:
- Less administration and greater productivity due automated and clear MDT workflow, so that everyone knows when and how to contribute.
- Enhanced logistics and effective planning options on top of the configurable platform, MDT facilitation and agenda setup capabilities.
- Structured data support and integration possibilities for comprehensive patient data capture and presentation.
- Possibility to access patients’ data by a broader spectrum of healthcare providers.
- Delivering better care service to any patient referred to regional MDT, beyond the borders of a single hospital.
Customer insights
“The Vitaly platform integrated into the different hospital information systems is a great example of connected care in which IT facilitates multiple hospitals to cooperate proactively and safely in a single patient case with minimal administrative burdens. We’re looking forward to the results of this innovative project. Great to have Open Line and Parsek in our ecosystem.”
Arjo Boendermaker, Project Lead Data Sharing
Central Netherlands Region