Welcome to Te Aho o Te Kahu website for Structured Pathology Reporting of Cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand data standards.
Pathology needs to prepare for a more digital standards-based health data environment.
The ever-increasing complexity of cancer treatment requires a greater level of pathology reporting.
However, the sector is facing major challenges with legacy/paper-based data systems and processes
notwithstanding funding issues and increasing workload pressures.
Pathology is integral to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
We are working with health care practitioners and pathology providers/vendors to support
the transition to an interoperable digital health environment to facilitate
the sharing of standardised pathology information through the development and
national adoption of data standards over the coming years.
Over the coming year Te Aho o Te Kahu will develop Health Information Standards Organisation (HISO)
endorsed Pathology Data Standards for all cancers.
The data standards are displayed in an electronic Form format and layout
to aid review only,
not as an indication of how these forms should be implemented in your systems.
We want to acknowledge the invaluable contributions from health care practitioners,
especially our pathologist community, and equity and technical subject matter experts
from across the country who are supporting this mahi.
If you have any general questions please contact
info@teaho.govt.nz. If want to be actively
involved in standard development please contact
john.manderson@teaho.govt.nz.
Data standards identify and describe clinically relevant data elements to aid implementation
in pathology requesting and reporting data capture workflows in your systems and processes.
This website provides guidance for anyone looking to:
- provide feedback on data standards that are published or in development. This can be done at any time to ensure the standards stay relevant for use in clinical practice in Aotearoa.
- use cancer specific data standards, with guidance in reviewing, building and/or updating pathology data systems and associated clinical workflows.
- use SNOMED CT for pathology clinical terminology with FHIR standards.
- support broader work to improve the shareability of cancer information.
- view the latest information on data standard development and release status.
This site will be continuously updated with new standards and additional information on SNOMED CT and FHIR IG support as developed.
We recommend you visit our
project website
and read our
Structured Pathology Reporting of Cancer Preface
to give you a comprehensive overview of data standards including our approach to develop, publish,
and maintain cancer pathology data standards in Aotearoa. This includes the following key points:
- The data standards developed are based on ICCR and adapted by RCPA for use in Aotearoa i.e. we convert the clinical protocol into a technical specification for implementation purposes.
- A working group is formed, led by Pathologists with support from range of health care practitioners and subject matter experts.
- All data standards are submitted to HISO for endorsement once approved by the working group that developed them.
- The Form view you see is a visualisation of data elements that should be captured for that cancer:
- It is used to ensure the data elements are clinically and technically accurate using a familiar presentation format.
- It is not the form that is required to be implemented for the data standard – in fact, when implemented, the data standards may look quite different in your practice/laboratory.
- Data should be entered once with the sharing/reusing of data across multiple systems. Implementation
in a production system should only be practical if much of the data is automatically populated via patient
and clinical systems to minimise the administrative burden on clinicians and others involved in data entry.
- It is not expected all data elements included can be collected immediately and/or are clinically required. This includes balancing structured data capture and free text for more nuisance narrative reporting
- Form Sections patient details( e.g. NHI etc) and Administration
(e.g. requesting health care practitioner etc) are there for demonstration purposes only rather than as a requirement for how these data fields should be implemented.
- The data standards will be continuously monitored and updated according to international best practice, sector feedback and evolving local requirements
There are four categories of standard development:
- Development: a standard that is actively been developed by the working group, so your feedback is requested in preparation for submission to HISO for approval.
- Working draft dataset: a dataset that is not considered sufficiently robust since it has not been recently updated by international processes and/or insufficient clinical support available to develop.
- Draft data standard: a HISO endorsed draft data standard that has been developed from ICCR/RCPA protocols by subject matter experts/clinical representatives. The draft data standard is considered sufficient for piloting in a system but does require wider sector review through feedback and/or use in pathology services over a period of up to 12 months.
- Data standard: a HISO endorsed finalised data standard where changes have been applied to the draft data standard from feedback through the release period with health care practitioners and subject matter experts, confirming it is fit for purpose for implementation in a production system.
Here are some helpful pointers to get you started navigating our site:
- In the top left-hand corner “select standard to view” enables you to search for standards.
- Click the standard you want to view. Each Standard defaults to the Form view.
- Click on the name of each Form section to view the data fields corresponding to that section.
- Hover over and icons above a data field to get some guidance on field definition and rules for use.
- Use the feedback boxes (called reviewer comments) at the end of each Form section to note any issues or provide feedback (e.g., missing fields, incorrect definitions or values, fields that should be included or general comments). These feedback boxes be used during development and when a standard is published.
- Some fields will not appear until you choose a relevant value in a previous field (e.g., clinical TNM triggers additional fields to appear). Free text boxes will appear when the value “Other” is selected.
- If you are providing feedback you must enter in your details in the “Reviewer details” box. Once you populate your name and write a comment in a reviewer box a Submit button will appear. Please only submit when finished.
- The icon at the top of the page that appears when a standard is being viewed will allow you to return to the front page.