Time, Money, and Lives Blog

Most of us probably don’t pay much attention, but we use ‘templates’ in our everyday life.  We are using them so much, in fact, that our devices are even starting to figure out what we are going to say/type next.  For instance, when I go to fill out a form in Google and I start to type my name, Google will try to auto populate the other fields for address, email, phone number, etc.  Google knows that I have used this information many times before and has essentially created a template for me.  Of course the world of Pathology is much more complex than filling in fields for name and address, but there are still so many areas where you are likely saying the same or very similar phrases again and again.

The benefits of big data in healthcare have already been proven around the world. In fact, the collection and analysis of data is the fastest growing trend in healthcare. Data collected from across multiple organizations within a population can be used to study trends and develop strategies geared toward the most effective treatment and prevention of disease. With this in mind, the California Department of Public Health created the California Cancer Registry (CCR) to gather data and analyze the various factors affecting cancer risk. The California State Assembly then passed a law requiring Pathologists to report all cancer diagnoses to the CCR using the College of American Pathologists' protocols. The law goes into effect Jan 1, 2019.

"But wait!" You might be thinking, "I don't practice in California; why should I care about their laws and registries?"

No two days in a gross room are the same. I experienced this first hand as a technician before I came to work at Voicebrook. Maybe, like me, you are a biopsy technician and receive the surprise ECC that takes 30 cassettes to entirely submit, or maybe you are PA and receive the surprise derm frozen that requires all hands on deck. No matter your role, you never know what curveballs the day has in store for you.

Did you know that the average person living in America now spends ten or more hours a day in front of a screen? This trend is not slowing down! For most people, work is taking up most of this screen time. In fact, you may be looking at a “screen saver” of some trees or a green field, just to remind you of what the outside world looked like…oh memories. I can't reverse this trend, but I might be able to offer a few suggestions to decrease the number of issues you face while in front of that screen.

On May 17, the CAP Structured Data Team discovered an important error in its template for the Endometrium electronic Cancer Checklist (eCC) released in June 2017 and February 2018. The error involves incorrect text in the reportText attribute for two questions:

• ?Number of Para-aortic Nodes with isolated Tumor Cells (0.2 mm or less)#
• ?Laterality of Para-aortic Node(s) with Tumor

The reportText attribute contained the text "Pelvic Nodes" instead of "Para-aortic Nodes."