Registry Plus™ eMaRC Plus Features and Future Plans

Version 5.1 — New Features

Version 5.1 was released on June 20, 2014. It included a production release of the Physician Reporting module to receive and process documents from physician electronic health record (EHR) systems in a Health Level Seven (HL7) Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) format in accordance with the Meaningful Use Stage 2 Implementation Guide for cancer reporting from physician offices.

To obtain a copy of eMaRC Plus version 5.1, send a request.

eMaRC Plus includes two modules: ePath Reporting and Physician Reporting. Some features are highlighted below.

ePath Reporting Module

The ePath Reporting module now offers the ability to receive and process synoptic reports in an HL7 version 2.5.1 format in accordance with the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) Volume V Pathology Laboratory Electronic Reporting standard. Enhancements include—

• An improved user interface to minimize the number of steps and clicks required to complete a task.
• Improved search capabilities.
• An improved printing function.
• The ability to create a blank abstract to include a path report that has been scanned into Adobe Acrobat^® PDF format.
• A new interface to maintain the reporting facility Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) number and a report template to show the number of reports by CLIA number.
• The ability to autocode laterality for certain sites in narrative reports.
• An integrated electronic reporting tool to calculate Collaborative Stage (CS) version 2.
• Added functionality to receive and process synoptic reports and updated C-keys.
• Updated to NAACCR version 13.

Physician Reporting Module

The Physician Reporting module allows state cancer registries to receive and process physician reports from EHRs in an HL7 CDA format in accordance with the implementation guide adopted for use in Meaningful Use Stage 2.

Key features of the Physician Reporting Module include—

• Ability to select either Physician Reporting or ePath Reporting.
• Imports, browses, and opens CDA documents.
• Parses (programming to read the individual data elements) CDA documents using XPath.
• Stores extracted CDA data elements in relational tables.
• Maps CDA data elements to NAACCR layout.
• Performs vocabulary/code translation.
• Displays mapped and translated NAACCR data elements.
• Provides view of CDA documents in raw XML and report (using a stylesheet) formats.
• Provides a default abstract display type which is configurable for users to select fields to display and set defaults.
• Exports CDA documents to NAACCR record layout.
• Provides an interface to open, find, and search cases.
• Polls and imports physician reports from the PHINMS queue.
• Allows automatic import of multiple records (as a batch), and exports using DOS commands.
• Allows users to manage system configuration settings.
• Merges multiple reports for the same patient and tumor from the same facility.
• Automatically consolidates abstracts using data item consolidation directives.
• Creates simple count reports by reporter (practice or physician).
• Includes user documentation of CDA document section tables in eMaRC Plus database.
• Includes user documentation of mapping rules and translation tables in eMaRC Plus database.
• Creates separate abstracts from a single CDA document with more than one cancer diagnosis entry.
• Pulls, decodes, and decompresses the CDA document from an HL7 message.

Future Plans

ePath Reporting Module

1. Develop a service module (without a user interface) that imports HL7 messages from the Public Health Information Network Messaging System (PHINMS) queue and codes them without manual intervention.
2. Integrate GenEdits.
3. Improve autocoding of laterality.
4. Add autocoding of grade for narrative reports.
5. Update autocoding to take addendum reports into consideration.

Physician Reporting Module

1. Enhance the CDA log file (XPath mapping) to address missing paths vs. nulls and provide a more user-friendly view.
2. Add/enhance reports including graph trend over time; count reports by patient, report, or type of case (tumor site/type); and non-reportables.
3. Validate structure.
4. Validate content.
5. Link the patient/tumor with the central registry database.