JCO Clinical Care Informatics (JCO CCI) will be the first ASCO journal devoted to applications of biomedical informatics to cancer care.
Debra Patt, MD, MPH, MBA, the Editor-in-Chief of JCO CCI, understands how important biomedical informatics research is to the oncology field. Dr. Patt coauthored a study that evaluated patient demographics, clinical characteristics, and survival outcomes associated with early molecular testing as compared with delayed molecular testing in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer.1 The study, presented at the 2014 ASCO Quality Care Symposium, emphasized the importance of tools such as molecular diagnostic tests in providing better outcomes for patients with cancer.
Dr. Patt, an oncologist and breast cancer specialist at Texas Oncology, also serves as Medical Director of Outcomes Research on the Pathways Task Force at the US Oncology Network. There, she actively promotes cancer informatics through lectures on new technologies such as patient portals and online patient-reported outcomes. Although these tools are available to most oncologists—making it easier and faster than ever to incorporate cancer informatics into their practices—Dr. Patt said using them is still not the norm.
“We are at a time of remarkable change in medicine, and we’re trying to use data to understand [cancer treatment] and help it evolve better,” Dr. Patt said. “There is still a gap in health care when it comes to using data insights to provide better care. JCO CCI will help inform clinicians, researchers, and administrators on how to integrate systems of care delivery to enhance the care of the patients we serve.”
Dr. Patt said JCO CCI will augment patient care by “facilitating informatics improvements in oncology” through its original research, scientific reviews, editorials, and commentaries. The journal will be published entirely online, and all articles will be available on the JCO CCI website, cci.jco.org. Readers will be able to access the newest research in cancer informatics almost instantaneously, instead of waiting for complete print issues.
This online access is just one way the journal will contribute to Dr. Patt’s overall vision for JCO CCI and the field of cancer informatics: to get better, faster.
Although Dr. Patt said the journal will focus mostly on the improvements biomedical informatics are making to integrated systems of care delivery, therapeutic response assessments, and value-of-care assessments in oncology, she also encourages contributors to consider new applications of informatics in cancer care, from diagnostic technologies to cancer drug therapies.
Information on submitting manuscripts and the journal’s overall mission are available at cci.jco.org. ■
Reference
1. Smith DA, Reynolds CH, Patt DA, et al: Patient characteristics and survival outcomes associated with early versus delayed molecular testing in metastatic NSCLC. 2014 ASCO Quality Care Symposium. Abstract 211.
Reprinted and adapted with permission from the 2017 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium Daily News.
