Cancer information systems
Cancer is New Zealand’s biggest killer, yet there is no coherent view of data across the cancer continuum.
Cancer data is not collected in a consistent manner and has to be extracted from multiple systems for analysis. Timely access to data is difficult.
National View of Cancer (NVC) data
The Ministry of Health (the Ministry) has embarked on a project to integrate all major sources of cancer data into a National View of Cancer (NVC). A NVC will enable access to high-quality, accurate and timely data on cancer incidence, treatment and outcomes enabling better control of cancer in New Zealand.
The benefits we expect
- assist with measurement of survival rates from specific treatment regimens resulting in improvement in cancer patient survival rates because the best treatment approaches can be more easily identified
- collect accurate clinical and pathological cancer staging data to enable the identification of late detection and to contribute to the understanding of and addressing the many factors linked to late detection
- improve analysis of trends in population health
- allow assessment of the cost effectiveness of new drugs and treatments
- assist with understanding the future demand on services, facilitating better planning
- more consistent ethnicity data enabling better understanding of the issues around equity of access and levels of treatment
- improve ability to assess the impact of health policy on disease states
- improve ability to report on national trends around treatment and outcomes for cancer patients
The steps we're taking
- A Current State Analysis has been completed. This document looks at relevant systems and processes that currently exist and are planned for and gives us a good feel for our starting point.
- We're currently (until Feb 2012) finding out what users want and need from a National View of Cancer. These 'business requirements' will drive the design of the solution.
- We'll finish design of the solution in the middle of 2012 and then seek funding for build and implementation.
Our approach
- We're approaching this work in a way that ensures the National View of Cancer integrates with local and regional systems as far as possible. Working with HISO (2010), we've published data standards so that nationwide, data can begin to be collected in a standardised way and shared between systems and regions.
- The work going on in South Island with the Clinical Cancer Information System is important to the National View of Cancer. They're implementing a regional clinical cancer data repository and we're evaluating that to see how suitable it would be as a model for other regions.
- Our aim is to deliver value as soon as possible and in a way that is flexible and can be extended as more data sources become available.
How to get involved
The advice and input of stakeholders is fundamental to the success of the NVC. If you want to get involved and/or be kept up to date with the project, get in touch with Steve Creed in the Ministry's cancer team: Steve_Creed@moh.govt.nz.
Page last updated: 11 October 2011
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