Cancer Management and Research (Jul 2020)

A Conceptual Model of an Oncology Information System

  • Yazdanian A,
  • Ayatollahi H,
  • Nahvijou A

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 12
pp. 6341 – 6352

Abstract

Read online

Azadeh Yazdanian,1 Haleh Ayatollahi,2,3 Azin Nahvijou4 1Department of Medical Records and Health Information Technology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran; 2Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Department of Health Information Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 4Cancer Research Center of Cancer Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranCorrespondence: Haleh Ayatollahi Email [email protected]: Oncologists are usually faced with a huge amount of diagnostic and therapeutic data in the process of cancer care. However, they do not have access to the integrated data. This research aimed to present a conceptual model of an oncology information system based on the users’ requirements.Methods: This study was conducted in 2019 and composed of two phases. Initially, a questionnaire was designed, and clinical experts (n=34) were asked to identify the most important data elements and functional requirements in an oncology information system. In the second phase, conceptual, structural and behavioral diagrams of the system were drawn based on the results of the first phase. These diagrams were also reviewed and validated by five experts.Results: Most of the data elements and all functional requirements were found important by the experts. The data elements were related to different phases of cancer care including screening, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, mental care and pain relief, and end-of-life care. Then, conceptual, structural and behavioral diagrams of the system were designed and approved by the experts or revised based on their comments.Conclusion: The conceptual model and the diagrams presented in the current study can be used for developing an oncology information system. This system will be able to manage patients’ cancer data from screening to the end-of-life care. However, the system needs to be designed and implemented in a real healthcare setting to see how it can meet users’ requirements.Keywords: oncology information system, hospital, neoplasm, functional requirements, cancer data

Keywords