Blog from December, 2020

CodeX December Newsletter: Founding Member Opportunity, New CodeX Members, Exciting Use Case Updates, and more
Anthony DiDonato posted on Dec 11, 2020

CodeX (Common Oncology Data Elements eXtensions) is an HL7 FHIR Accelerator building a community – through new applications and use cases – around the mCODE (minimal Common Oncology Data Elements) FHIR Implementation Guide. mCODE STU1 describes a set of 90 essential data elements that will enable the interoperable exchange of cancer patient data and step-change improvements in cancer care and research. Refer to the mCODE and CodeX overview slide deck for more information.


Founding Member Opportunity

The opportunity to join CodeX as a Founding Member ends December 31st, 2020. This special membership option is designed for organizations to get in on the ground level and lead in developing project plans, engaging partners, and overseeing project work. Please email Steve Bratt (sbratt@mitre.org) or Anthony DiDonato (adidonato@mitre.org) if you would like to learn more and discuss this opportunity.


New Members Contributing New Perspectives

CodeX welcomes new Members: American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) recently joined as a Founder. TrialJectory joined as a Member. Varian, Mettle Solutions and Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative have joined as Developer/Implementers. Several leading health systems, vendors, payers, and others are discussing joining CodeX.


Recent CodeX Use Case Achievements

CodeX has seven active use case projects: four in Execution Phase – mCODE++ Extraction, ICAREdata, Trial Matching, Registry Reporting – and three in Planning Phase – Oncology Clinical Pathways, Prior Authorization, and Radiation Therapy.


Here are some highlights:

  • The Registry Reporting use case kicked off on October 27th, now holding regular Member leadership and workgroup meetings. Meeting notes are available on the Registry Reporting meetings page. Led by CodeX Members the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), the plan for Phase 0 is to send mCODE-compliant demographic data from two or three health systems to the California Cancer Registry and the CIBMTR registry. This proof of concept will highlight the ability to collect mCODE data once and share with multiple registries. Future phases become increasingly ambitious. To get involved on the ground level of this project, please feel free to reach out to Greg Shemancik (gshemancik@mitre.org). 


  • The Trial Matching use case project team has completed their Phase 0 work by demonstrating the ability of a trial matching service to receive an mCODE record, analyze the record to make matches, and then present the matches back to the patient or provider. To view more information about these achievements, take a look at the Phase 0 final report. The team is now in the process of completing Phase 1. Phase 1 aims to send patient records to multiple mCODE-enabled trial matching services to demonstrate mCODE enablement and evaluate the effectiveness of the optimized patient data elements. If you would like to join this project team and participate on these workgroup meetings, please contact Caroline Potteiger (cpotteiger@mitre.org) regarding project opportunities.

          This use case is sponsored by the Biomedical Research and Regulation (BR&R) Work Group. 


  • The Radiation Therapy use case team is conducting their first workgroup meeting on December 11th. CodeX Members will be leading development of a project plan, with activities, deliverables and measures for multiple phases of work. This team is working to highlight a minimal set of mCODE data elements that will be used for future Phase 0 work, sending data from specialty radiation oncology systems to the main health system EHR. If you would like to join the Radiation Therapy team and participate in these workgroup meetings, please contact George Neyarapally (gneyarapally@mitre.org) or Sharon Sebastian (ssebastian@mitre.org).


mCODE Community of Practice

Each month, the Community gathers to discuss the mCODE standard and applications in the real world being developed through CodeX. During these conversations, participants:

  • Update the community on the latest developments and innovations regarding mCODE and CodeX
  • Share best practices for clinical workflows, data modeling, and data exchange
  • Ask questions and learn from the experience of other community members

Visit the mCODE Community of Practice (CoP) Monthly Meeting Minutes page to learn more about upcoming Community of Practice monthly meetings and view resources from previous calls.

Please register here to join the next meeting, and feel free to tell your colleagues. Participation is open to all.


mCODE Educational Resources

The mCODE team recently published mCODE resources that provide overviews of mCODE profiles and categories, a playbook that offers guidance and best practices for the implementation of mCODE in health systems’ IT software, and how mCODE compares to other research-oriented standards. Interested community members are able to search for detailed information about the mCODE profiles, model best practices, and troubleshoot tips for common problems. Please reach out to May Terry (mayt@mitre.org) or Caroline Potteiger (cpotteiger@mitre.org) to learn more.

 

Stay in Touch!

If you would like to stay up to date with the latest mCODE and CodeX related news and updates, please go to our CodeX Confluence home page and click "Join a CodeX Listserv". Please don't hesitate to reach out to Steve Bratt sbratt@mitre.org or Anthony DiDonato adidonato@mitre.org with any questions or comments! 


Thank you,
The CodeX Community Support Team