New life for old cellular pathology: A transformational approach to the upcycling of historic e-pathology records for contemporary clinical uses
New life for old cellular pathology: A transformational approach to the upcycling of historic e-pathology records for contemporary clinical uses
Aims: Cellular pathology (€ e-pathology') record sets are a rich data resource with which to populate the electronic patient record (EPR). Accessible reports, even decades old, can be of great value in contemporary clinical decision making and as a resource for longitudinal clinical research. The aim of this short paper is to describe a solution in a major UK University Hospital which gives immediate visibility and clinical utility to 30 years of e-pathology records.
Methods: Over the past decade, we have created a timeline structured and iconographic data framework for the € whole-of-life' visualisation of the entirety of an EPR. We have enhanced this interface with the sequential extraction of 373 342 e-pathology reports from legacy Ferranti (1990-1997) and Masterlab (1997-2004) files. They have been uploaded into our SQL file servers, following appropriate data quality and patient identity reconciliation checks.
Results: We have restored a large repository of previously inaccessible e-pathology records to clinical use and to immediacy of access as a foundation element of our timeline structured EPR. This process has also allowed us to populate and validate an EPR-integral breast cancer data system of 20 000 cases with e-pathology records dating back to 1990.
Conclusions: The revitalisation of old e-pathology reports into a timeline structured EPR creates preserves and upcycles the investment in pathology reporting which is otherwise progressively lost to clinical use. E-pathology records provide reliable, life-long evidence of critical transition points in individual lives and disease progression for clinical and research use, when they can be instantly accessed.
computer systems, information technology, medical informatics, medical informatics computing, pathology, surgical
Rew, David Anthony
36dcc3ad-2379-4b61-a468-5c623d796887
Hales, Alan Arthur
66a20906-7b0e-4d23-b65a-08932f23900b
Cable, David
4e0028d3-0340-4f02-8a8c-7be8d66f636b
Burrill, Keith
fa8c03bc-83f7-41a2-89f8-e5732c3f71ec
Bateman, Adrian C.
e302a81f-ca4c-48ae-9145-bff4e1ebef87
16 February 2021
Rew, David Anthony
36dcc3ad-2379-4b61-a468-5c623d796887
Hales, Alan Arthur
66a20906-7b0e-4d23-b65a-08932f23900b
Cable, David
4e0028d3-0340-4f02-8a8c-7be8d66f636b
Burrill, Keith
fa8c03bc-83f7-41a2-89f8-e5732c3f71ec
Bateman, Adrian C.
e302a81f-ca4c-48ae-9145-bff4e1ebef87
Rew, David Anthony, Hales, Alan Arthur, Cable, David, Burrill, Keith and Bateman, Adrian C.
(2021)
New life for old cellular pathology: A transformational approach to the upcycling of historic e-pathology records for contemporary clinical uses.
Journal of Clinical Pathology, [jclinpath-2021-207385].
(doi:10.1136/jclinpath-2021-207385).
Abstract
Aims: Cellular pathology (€ e-pathology') record sets are a rich data resource with which to populate the electronic patient record (EPR). Accessible reports, even decades old, can be of great value in contemporary clinical decision making and as a resource for longitudinal clinical research. The aim of this short paper is to describe a solution in a major UK University Hospital which gives immediate visibility and clinical utility to 30 years of e-pathology records.
Methods: Over the past decade, we have created a timeline structured and iconographic data framework for the € whole-of-life' visualisation of the entirety of an EPR. We have enhanced this interface with the sequential extraction of 373 342 e-pathology reports from legacy Ferranti (1990-1997) and Masterlab (1997-2004) files. They have been uploaded into our SQL file servers, following appropriate data quality and patient identity reconciliation checks.
Results: We have restored a large repository of previously inaccessible e-pathology records to clinical use and to immediacy of access as a foundation element of our timeline structured EPR. This process has also allowed us to populate and validate an EPR-integral breast cancer data system of 20 000 cases with e-pathology records dating back to 1990.
Conclusions: The revitalisation of old e-pathology reports into a timeline structured EPR creates preserves and upcycles the investment in pathology reporting which is otherwise progressively lost to clinical use. E-pathology records provide reliable, life-long evidence of critical transition points in individual lives and disease progression for clinical and research use, when they can be instantly accessed.
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 12 January 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 February 2021
Published date: 16 February 2021
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords:
computer systems, information technology, medical informatics, medical informatics computing, pathology, surgical
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 447854
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/447854
ISSN: 0021-9746
PURE UUID: 92f7093b-2747-433b-87e9-720274e48e87
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Date deposited: 24 Mar 2021 18:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:56
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Author:
Alan Arthur Hales
Author:
David Cable
Author:
Keith Burrill
Author:
Adrian C. Bateman
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