Implementing an EHR tracking system to review radiology reports for abnormal findings resulted in patients at one Veterans Affairs Hospital receiving their cancer diagnosis months earlier than those who were imaged before the system was put into place.
Not only did these patients receive their diagnosis sooner, but they also benefited from having the treatment of their hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) initiated nearly three months earlier, according to new work published in PLOS Digital Health.
In the new paper, experts detail the implementation of the web-based tracking system and how it affected diagnostic timelines for patients during the following 71 months.
“Advances in diagnostic technology and treatment options for liver cancer will benefit patients the most if patients are connected to appropriate specialty treatment in a timely manner, and our study demonstrates the potential of this practical intervention to systematically address gaps in care in an at-risk population,” corresponding author Tamar H. Taddei, of the Department of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, and co-authors stated when discussing the system’s benefits.
The system carried out two main functions: 1.) generating queues of abnormal imaging suspicious for liver cancer based on information from radiology reports, and 2.) maintaining queues of follow-up tasks relevant to testing and treatment. To track the system’s effectiveness, experts analyzed the diagnostic timelines of patients for 37 months before and 71 months after the intervention.
This resulted in an analysis of 60 patients with pre-intervention data and 127 post-intervention patients. In the post-intervention group, patients’ time from diagnosis to treatment was reduced by 36 days. That same group had the time in between undergoing imaging and receiving their diagnosis lowered by 51 days, and their time from imaging to treatment was cut by 87 days.
The authors of the study noted that the care of liver cancer patients is multi-specialty and that the system enabled the coordination of care plans to be accessed by everyone involved. This could be part of why the system was so effective, the experts explained.
“Our study demonstrates that a cancer care coordination system comprised of automated flagging of imaging suspicious for HCC, nurse navigators and MDTB can have a significant impact on timeliness of care in addition to clinical HCC screening guidelines,” the authors wrote.
Although the system was originally developed to track lung and liver cancers, its use has been extended into other cancers and the experts intend to study its effectiveness in the management of other chronic illnesses on a larger scale in the future.
“The complexities of care addressed by our tracking system are not unique to liver cancer, and this type of tool may improve cancer care coordination and delivery across diseases and health systems.”
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.