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“Why are we doing this? What is the objective here? When one doesn’t answer those questions clearly, then people fill in the blanks with all kinds of curious thoughts,” he says. “Make it clear that the objective is quality improvement as opposed to some sort of individual assessment for some unstated purpose.”

At VCU Medical Center, the improvements in bone marrow specimen quality since implementing the synoptic reporting system have been particularly valuable to areas that use advanced testing methods, such as next-generation sequencing, Dr. Chesney says.

“Sophisticated, high-level molecular testing needs to be performed on samples that are assured to be of good quality,” he explains. “The higher the level of testing, the greater the importance of the quality of the sample on which that testing is performed.”

—Renee Caruthers

ONC releases update to ISA reference edition

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has unveiled the eighth annual update of its Interoperability Standards Advisory Reference Edition.

This latest release includes CDC immunization information system code set standards and HL7-enabled Internet Information Services implementation guidance to help providers and health care agencies exchange data in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To better support CDC’s COVID-19 reporting requirements, we’ve added a newer release of [the] HL7 Laboratory Test Compendium Framework to support the transmission of a laboratory’s directory of services to providers’ health IT or EHR systems,” said Andrew Hayden, author for the ONC Health IT Buzz blog, in a recent post.

The ONC has also separated the vocabulary/code set/terminology entries in the laboratory section into the categories of representing laboratory test ordered, representing laboratory test performed, and representing laboratory values/results. The agency removed the more general category of representing laboratory tests.

Within the area of public health, the ONC added a new HL7 lab results interface implementation specification for newborn screening results and birth defect reporting to public health agencies.

In addition, the agency included a Fast Healthcare Interoperability Reporting-enabled U.S. laboratory report emerging standard for the electronic transmission of reportable laboratory results to public health agencies. This raises awareness about the potential uses of FHIR for public health reporting, Hayden posted.

“There are many other revisions to ISA, including rewording of interoperability need names, updating standard/implementation specification adoption levels, and replacing broken links,” he said. “We’ve also populated appendix II with additional models and profiles and updated appendix IV with state and local public health agency interoperability program links.”

The 2022 Interoperability Standards Advisory Reference Edition is available at https://tinyurl.com/ISA-reference-edition.

Paige undertakes partnerships to enhance AI-based software

The global artificial intelligence-based diagnostic software company Paige recently entered into two technology distribution agreements.

Paige reported that it has signed an agreement with Flagship Biosciences, a provider of data-centric pathology and tissue analysis. The partnership allows Paige to integrate into its digital pathology software platform Flagship’s TissueInsight AI-aided software for quantifying PD-L1 expression in IHC tissue samples.

“By enabling pathologists to access Flagship’s PD-L1 analysis tool directly within the Paige platform, we are providing pathologists and oncologists quicker access to biomarker testing results that will inform treatment planning,” said Paige CEO Andy Moye, PhD, in a press statement.

Paige also announced a partnership with Hamburg, Germany-based Mindpeak. The agreement will allow pathologists to use Mindpeak’s Breast­IHC AI software, which detects, classifies, and quantifies breast cancer cells, within Paige’s digital pathology platform.

BreastIHC is a plug-and-play AI solution for quantifying HER2, Ki-67, estrogen receptors, and progesterone receptors. It helps differentiate between tumors and other structures on a single-cell basis.

Providing the tool within Paige’s software will allow users to obtain real-time results for routine breast cancer IHC biomarkers, according to a statement from the companies.

BreastIHC is CE-IVD marked and available for research use only outside the European Union.

Dr. Aller practices clinical informatics in Southern California. He can be reached at raller@usc.edu. Dennis Winsten is founder of Dennis Winsten & Associates, Healthcare Systems Consultants. He can be reached at dwinsten.az@gmail.com.