Dr Stuart Goldberg on How to Collect Data in a Way That Makes Oncologic Sense

The kind of data oncologists need to move towards value-based care isn’t easily accessible in patient electronic health records, but new platforms like Cancer Outcomes Tracking and Analysis (COTA) are trying to make it easier, said Stuart Goldberg, MD, chief medical officer, COTA, John Theurer Cancer Center.

Transcript (slightly modified)

How do you predict the COTA data analysis platform will shape the future of oncology reform?

We’re in an era where we’re moving toward value-based programs, as opposed to volume-based, and part of the idea of value is to divide the outcomes by the cost. Well, in order to do that, you have to understand what you’re actually seeing, group them properly, and then understand the costs. Most oncologists couldn’t tell you how many patients they see with breast cancer, no less how many patients have HER2/neu breast cancer or stage IV breast cancer. That’s not easily accessible in the electronic health records.

So what COTA has done is try to organize the patients in a way that makes oncologic sense, so that we can then give that information back to the insurance carriers, and to the practices, and even make it available to the public. Once that data’s out there, we can then do big data analytics to then drive the value equation and help with payment reform.