Ordo ab Chao: Framework for an integrated disease report

Context: The volume of information that must be assimilated to appropriately manage patients with complex or chronic disease can make this task difficult because of the number of data points, their variable temporal availability, and the fact that they may reside in different systems or even institutions. Objective: To outline a framework for building an integrated disease report (IDR) that takes advantage of the capabilities of electronic reporting to create a single, succinct, interpretative report comprising all disease pertinent data. Design: Disease pertinent data of an IDR include pathology results, laboratory and radiology data, pathologic correlations, risk profiles, and therapeutic implications. We used cancer herein as a representative process for proposing what is, to our knowledge, the first example of standardized guidelines for such a report. The IDR was defined as a modular, dynamic, electronic summary of the most current state of a patient in regard to a particular illness such as lung cancer or diabetes, which includes all information relevant for patient management. Results: We propose the following 11 core data concepts that an IDR should include: patient identification; patient demographics; disease, diagnosis, and prognosis; tumor board dispositions and decisions; graphic timeline; preresection workup and therapy; resection workup; interpretative comment summarizing pertinent findings; biobanking data; postresection workup; and disease and patient status at follow-up. Conclusions: A well-executed IDR should improve patient care and efficiency for health care team members. It would demonstrate the added value of pathology interpretation and likely contribute to a reduction in errors and improved patient safety by decreasing the risk that important data will be overlooked.