Creating a Health Information Technology Infrastructure to Support Comparative Effectiveness Research in Cancer

This chapter will discuss, via a number of case examples, the need for informatics infrastructures that integrate data from traditional (ie, clinical trials) and nontraditional (eg, mobile, wearable, and home-based technologies) sources to inform comparative effectiveness research across the cancer prevention and care continuum. These infrastructures can support care practices, patient engagement, and elucidation of patient-reported outcomes. Technological approaches that enable new ways of assessing outcomes through the use of new types of data are important to both patients and providers. For example, the availability of sensor technology brings tremendous opportunities to expand our ability to collect more robust data related to health behaviors, treatment impact, cancer survivorship, and quality of life. Examples from the limited but expanding evidence base on implementation of sensor and related technology in cancer also will be discussed, as will opportunities for integrating with other infrastructures such as the electronic medical record.