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Updated October 12, 2009
The College of American Pathologists (CAP) Cancer Committee publishes cancer checklists to assist surgical pathologists in reporting both common and uncommon forms of cancer. SNOMED Terminology Solutions has enhanced the checklists by placing them in XML format beginning in January 2009, and encoding question and answer terms with SNOMED Clinical Terms® (SNOMED CT®). In addition, collaborative efforts are ongoing to integrate the CAP electronic Cancer Checklists (eCC) with the most up-to-date clinical and informatics systems from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Cancer Institute (NCI), American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Collaborative Staging (CS), North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO).
The CAP eCC consists of more than 60 checklist templates in XML format. This format greatly eases the implementation of interoperable solutions for capturing standardized data, data retrieval, and data transmission.
For more information, please see “An Overview of the College of American Pathologists Cancer Checklists.” (PDF, 50 KB)
Please note: The CAP eCC downloadable file set is available with a CAP eCC license. For questions about the CAP eCC and licensing information, please contact SNOMED Terminology Solutions at (847) 832-7700 or snomedsolutions@cap.org.
Please note: the new 2009 CAP Cancer Checklists are now available.
As a current licensee of the CAP eCC, you should be aware of upcoming changes that will affect your implementation and use of the eCC.
The CAP Cancer Committee is creating new cancer checklists, as well as extensively revising the existing cancer checklists. These checklists will include elements from the 2009 release of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual, 7th edition. (Currently, most of the 60 checklists reference the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual 6th edition). In addition, a number of site specific Collaborative Staging (CS) data elements used by cancer registries, as well as other new data elements, will be included in many of the new checklists.
The CAP Cancer Checklists are available in the traditional, non-encoded Word
and PDF formats, while the SNOMED CT encoded CAP electronic cancer checklists,
are available in a Microsoft Access database format. The last release of the
database format was the July 2008 release. We are in the process of converting
the existing eCC into an XML format. Beginning in January 2009, the existing
cancer checklists will be released in an XML format. (However, the traditional,
non-SNOMED CT encoded, cancer checklists will continue to be available
on the CAP website in Word and PDF formats). When the new CAP Cancer Checklists
are released in 2009, they will replace the content of the currently distributed
checklists.
The new XML checklist files will contain fundamentally the same data as the July 2008 database release. For quality assurance purposes, vendor-specific implementations created from the new XML checklist documents may be compared with the previous Microsoft Access based implementations. The two formats (XML and Microsoft Access) should result in identical implementations content-wise.
With few exceptions, the current electronic cancer checklists are SNOMED CT encoded. However, not all line items in the checklists support SNOMED CT encoding. The XML file and database formats utilize unique “Ckeys” to identify each line item in each checklist. These Ckeys are in a format that includes a namespace and unique number to identify checklist line items. The Ckeys may facilitate vendors in instances where internal loading and staging tables (and related programs) use approaches where unique keys are not necessarily terminology codes. These keys may be used in coordination with best practices of semantic encoding using standard reference terminologies such as SNOMED CT, and interoperability standards such as HL7.
The impact of these changes to licensees is:
- The eCC will be released in XML only, beginning in January 2009, replacing the Microsoft Access database;
- CAP will publish over 70 cancer checklists in midyear 2009 which include new and revised content;
- Some checklist items may not be encoded with SNOMED CT terms until a later release when new concepts are officially released from the International Health Terminology Standard Development Organization (IHTSDO).
The CAP Cancer Checklists are used by pathologists as a guide to ensure that essential data elements are collected when reporting cancer cases. Collection of this information is required by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) for accreditation of cancer centers, as well as for compliance with Cancer Care Ontario’s quality standards for pathology reporting. Standardization of data collection increases efficiency, reduces ambiguity, improves quality and promotes interoperability of cancer checklists data.
CAP recognizes that each licensee implements the checklists in a manner unique to their needs and requirements. If you have questions about how these changes will impact how you use the electronic Cancer Checklists or if you need additional information, please contact your CAP STS Account Manager for a consultation tailored to your unique needs.
- SNOMED CT is the premier clinical terminology for indexing, storing, retrieving, and aggregating patient data electronically.
- SNOMED CT enables the accurate coding of cancer data elements at the time of data capture to provide more complete and consistent information to clinicians.
- SNOMED CT greatly enhances the ability to retrieve checklist information from single patients or from groups of patients.
- The CAP eCC data model will drastically reduced the effort and cost of developing standards-compliant computerized solutions that use the CAP Cancer Checklists.
- Solutions developed with the CAP eCC database format can be used in conjunction with dictation and computerized data-entry services, thereby reducing time and saving money.
- The CAP eCC will greatly facilitate the use of computerized solutions that are in compliance with the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (ACoS CoC) requirements.
- The CAP eCC data storage model, along with the SNOMED CT encoding, will greatly improve the ability to store data that is interoperable with other informatics solutions.
The CAP eCC product is licensed. Please contact SNOMED Terminology Solutions at (847) 832-7700 or snomedsolutions@cap.org for more information.
Educational programs and expert consulting for the implementation, customization, and use of the CAP eCC are also available from CAP-STS. We strongly encourage all prospective and current CAP eCC users to take advantage of these time-saving and cost-saving services.
View Course Catalog
Please contact SNOMED Terminology Solutions at (847) 832-7700 or snomedsolutions@cap.org for more information.
Thank you for your interest in the CAP eCC! |
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