NPCR–MERP E-Path Pilot Project Workgroup

The E-Path Pilot Project Workgroup is a collaboration between CDC's National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR), LabCorp, Inc., CDC's Public Health Information Network, and 18 state central cancer registries, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

States Participating in E-Path Pilot Project

This workgroup will test electronic anatomical pathology reporting from a national laboratory to state central cancer registries.

This workgroup will use the recently approved standard in the NAACCR Volume V Standard for Pathology Laboratory Electronic Reporting* and the business rules defined in the draft NAACCR ePath Reporting Process Guide. The workgroup will explore the feasibility of integrating electronic pathology reporting for cancer registries into the infrastructure for electronic laboratory reporting of communicable diseases and biosurveillance. This workgroup can help the cancer registry community use consistent standards for electronic pathology reporting that will improve the completeness, timeliness, and quality of cancer registry data.

A Web conference is held every second Thursday of the month, and minutes are sent out the following Thursday.

Recent Accomplishments

• LabCorp developed a Health Level Seven (HL7) file of pathology reports using the NAACCR Volume V standard.
• The workgroup coordinated with CDC's Biosurveillance and National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) group to integrate the cancer data feed onto the LabCorp server.
• The workgroup developed an HL7 mapper (MapperPlus) tool to
• Retrieve HL7 formatted messages of pathology reports from the Public Health Information Network Messaging System (PHIN–MS) queue at the state health department.
• Store the data in a database for processing by the cancer registry.
• The workgroup assessed registries' ability to implement the PHIN–MS to transfer HL7 messages between LabCorp and their state public health system or state cancer registry.
• The workgroup identified issues in using the NAACCR Volume V standard, and informed the NAACCR E-Path Transmission Workgroup.
• The workgroup produced and distributed the Phase 1 Final Report: Implementing Electronic Pathology Laboratory Reporting from a National Laboratory to State Central Cancer Registries (Adobe Acrobat (PDF-627KB) or Microsoft Word (DOC-718KB)).

Phase II/III Project Activities

• Enhance HL7 MapperPlus Tool
• Work with laboratories, NAACCR, SNOMED, and LOINC to create standard codes for anatomic pathology
• Compare/Evaluate Orion Rhapsody (National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS) Message Subscription Service) functionality with HL7 MapperPlus
• Implement a robust text mining function for processing electronic health records
• Final project report

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