Mitre has partnered with nonprofits American Society of Clinical Oncology, CancerLinQ and Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Foundation to develop and set standards for gathering medical patient data with the aim of improving cancer research efforts.
It released the data collection standards with its partners under the Minimal Common Oncology Data Elements or mCODE initiative during ASCO’s 2019 annual meeting in Chicago, Mitre said Saturday.
The mCODE initiative aims to establish a set of standards that guide the capture and reporting of cancer patient data encompassing characteristics, treatments and outcomes, and seeks to address the incompatibility between different types and formats of data.
In practice, after information is recorded using physician-known medical terminology, it will be divided into six aspect areas: patient, disease, genomics, labs/vitals, treatment and outcomes. This data collection method aims to provide a common ground for oncology medical professionals to accumulate and share data for clinical research purposes.
Cancer organizations from across the U.S. are working to implement mCODE via pilot programs.