Future of Cancer Data Summit

9:00–9:30 AM

Registration

9:30–9:45 AM

Welcome & Introductions

9:45–10:15 AM

Mark A. Lewis, MD
Director of Gastrointestinal Oncology
Intermountain Healthcare, Murray, UT

Drawing from his unique perspective as both an oncologist and a cancer survivor, Dr. Lewis will explore the transformative impact of pathology data on the development of personalized treatment plans and improved long-term outcomes for cancer patients. He will discuss the importance of presenting diagnostic data in a clear, understandable format to support care team collaboration, empower patients throughout their cancer journey, foster greater engagement and understanding of treatment options, and improve outcomes. Dr. Lewis will also share his vision for the future of collaboration between pathologists and oncologists, emphasizing the potential of this partnership to lead to better integrated, more effective cancer treatment strategies, ultimately improving patient outcomes and advancing the field of oncology.

10:15–11:00 AM

Jeffrey Gershenwald, MD
Professor
Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

11:00–11:15 AM

Break

11:15 AM–12:15 PM

Paul Seegers
Sr. Advisor & Administrator, National Pathology & Molecular Protocols
Palga Foundation, Netherlands

Narrative reporting—evolving from transcription to speech recognition—has been the standard way to report diagnostic pathology findings. However, new reporting methods have emerged over the past decades, improving informational content and making reporting more structured and standardized. As more countries adopt a form of Synoptic Reporting or Standardized Structured Reporting (SSR), which will improve the quality and completeness of different registries and lead to better outcomes. Along with molecular diagnostics, AI and digital annotations will also find their way into SSR to support the pathologist. This will not only lower the administrative burden but will also play a role in transparency and the re-use of data for further optimization of AI applications. With increased use of standardization in reporting to support AI and digital annotations, SSR can play an important role in the European Health Data Space for primary and secondary use.

12:15–1:00 PM 

Lunch

1:00–2:00 PM

Mary Edgerton, MD, PhD, FCAP
Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology
University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE

Veronica Klepeis, MD, PhD, FCAP
Assistant in Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Instructor in Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Aaron Pollett, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Associate Professor
Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology
Ontario Health

Explore the significance of cancer data integration and discover how harnessing pathology data can enhance patient outcomes and inform clinical decision-making. Join our expert panelists as they demonstrate how they use pathology data to uncover transformative insights. This is an essential opportunity for healthcare professionals to understand the critical role of data integration in advancing medical care and research.

2:00–2:45 PM

John Groth, MD, FCAP
Pathologist & Director of Informatics, Innovation and Technology
Endeavor Health, Evanston, IL

Delve into the critical role of seamless data exchange in improving patient outcomes within the realm of digital pathology. Explore the complete patient data journey, highlighting the touchpoints where data flows between pathologists, clinicians, and patients. Participants will learn about the impact of standardized synoptic reporting and interoperability on the accuracy and efficiency of pathology data, leading to significant quality improvements in patient care. The session will also provide practical guidance on establishing patient-centered pathology clinics that leverage digital tools for better communication and care, underscoring the importance of direct pathologist-patient interactions facilitated by seamless data exchange. Join us to discover how a patient-centered approach in digital pathology can transform the healthcare landscape for the better.

2:45–3:00 PM

Break

3:00–4:00 PM

W. Scott Campbell, PhD, MBA
Associate Professor, Peter C. Hinrichs Endowed Chair of Informatics
Director of Public Health Laboratory Informatics and Pathology Laboratory Informatics
Department of Pathology/Microbiology
University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE

Alex Goel, MI
CEO & Founder
Topology Health, Toronto, Canada

Sandy Jones
Public Health Advisor
Cancer Surveillance Branch, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA

Explore how interoperability tools are revolutionizing cancer diagnostics. This panel will examine how laboratories are integrating these tools into their cancer diagnostic workflows, highlighting SNOMED's ontological approach to utilizing electronic Cancer Protocols for research and report retrieval. We’ll also delve into the future of interoperability with emerging standards like Codex, mCODE, and upcoming USCDI initiatives. Additionally, we’ll take a closer look at the APHIL CDC interface, which allows for the automatic submission of cancer diagnostics to registries. This discussion promises to provide valuable insights into the evolving landscape of interoperability in cancer diagnostics.

4:00–4:45 PM

Alison Van Dyke, MD, PhD
Medical Officer—Research
Data Quality, Analysis, and Interpretation Branch
Surveillance Research Program
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Van Dyke will present the pathway for tumor data acquisition, from the pathology report to consolidation at the cancer registries and registry systems that are ultimately used in cancer research. She will discuss the four pillars of data quality and an initiative by the CAP, the NCI, the CDC, and other collaborators to ensure tumor site and morphology are captured accurately by cancer registries. Participants will see examples of automated data capture in cancer surveillance and how these data quality standards will be applied to future automated processing of pathology reports by cancer registries. The presentation will conclude with a look ahead to where the intersectionality between data standards and AI is going—and how these concepts need to be reframed for AI-driven automation.

4:45–5:00 PM

Wrap Up

Dr. Campbell is the Peter C. Hinrichs Chair of Pathology Informatics in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha, Nebraska. He is also the director of Informatics for the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory and the director of Research, Education, Administration, and Development for Health Informatics Core for UNMC. He specializes in clinical informatics with special emphasis in cancer pathology and microbiology. Dr. Campbell currently serves as the chair of the Cancer Synoptic Reporting Working Group for SNOMED International, which is creating the necessary knowledge representation and concepts for the SNOMED CT international release for use in structured cancer reporting. He is a certified SNOMED CT author and is funded by the CDC to continue development of SNOMED CT content for cancer reporting. He serves on the CAP Informatics Committee and advises the CAP PERT Committee. In addition to cancer reporting, Dr. Campbell is actively involved with the US Food and Drug Administration’s SHIELD data interoperability effort.

Dr. Edgerton is AP/CP and clinical informatics certified. She is currently a professor of pathology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) after having spent over 15 years at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). She was chair of the Pathology Electronic Reporting Committee (PERT) from 2020–2024, and has been involved in the implementation of the CAP electronic Cancer Protocols at both UNMC and MDACC. Dr. Edgerton brings those experiences to bear—along with her role leading PERT and a background in using pathology records to annotate data for complex analyses, including machine learning—on her work in clinical informatics. Dr. Edgerton received her MD degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and completed her post-graduate training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2022 she received the CAP Distinguished Service Award and in 2024 she received the Association of Pathology Informatics Lifetime Achievement Award, both for her contributions to informatics.

Dr. Gershenwald is a surgical oncologist-investigator and the John M. Skibber Endowed Professor of Surgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. In addition to his melanoma clinical practice (for which he received Press Ganey CG CAHPS Top 1% Provider recognition nationally for Exceptional Care in 2023), leadership in the MD Anderson Melanoma and Skin Center, the Melanoma Moon Shot, and an NIH-funded SPORE in melanoma, he has an active team science-based research program focused on integrating clinical, pathological, molecular, and immune factors to improve melanoma staging and to develop clinical tools to enhance clinical decision-making for patients with melanoma. Since its inception in 2000, he has co-led the Melanoma, Informatics, Tissue Resource, and Pathology Core (MelCore).

Dr. Gershenwald earned his MD with honors at Cornell University Medical College, completed general surgery residency training at The New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center, and did his surgical oncology fellowship at MD Anderson. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an honorary fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He currently serves as vice chair of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and chair of the AJCC Executive Committee and the AJCC version 9 Melanoma Expert Panel, and has served as a primary co-author for CAP Melanoma Protocols, co-chair/chair for the 7th/8th editions of the AJCC melanoma staging system (respectively), and co-lead of the NIH-funded Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA) melanoma initiative. Dr. Gershenwald has been recognized by MD Anderson and the Society of Melanoma Research for melanoma prevention initiatives and currently serves as co-chair of the National Council for Skin Cancer Prevention (NCSCP).

Mr. Goel has extensive experience implementing high structured data to enhance healthcare efficiency. His projects have included transformation of healthcare at Ontario Health and serving as a digital health consultant for clients like the CAP, the World Bank, and World Health Organization (WHO). His notable projects include implementing highly structured radiology reporting to revolutionize data collection, modernizing cancer registry reporting standards to enhance healthcare efficiency, and collaborating with the Hamilton Health Sciences' (HHS) CREATE team to deliver a SMART immunization guideline for the WHO.

Dr. Groth is currently the director of Informatics, Innovation, and Technology—and leading the efforts of the transition to a digital workflow with the incorporation of artificial intelligence—for his primary pathology clinical work in addition to his clinical practice specializing in prostate pathology. He currently serves as the co-chair for the Digital Pathology Association's Regulatory & Standards Task Force, as vice president of the Illinois Society of Cytotechnology, as treasurer of the Chicago Pathology Society, and as a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathology's Patient Champions Committee.

Ms. Jones provides informatics expertise to laboratories and the cancer registry community on cancer pathology and biomarker reporting. As a co-chair of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) Pathology Reporting WG, she provides guidance on maintaining the NAACCR Electronic Pathology Reporting Guidelines to support reporting of narrative and structured College of American Pathologists (CAP) electronic Cancer Protocols. She provides technical assistance to implement real-time reporting of cancer pathology and biomarker data and coordinates with the Association of Public Health Laboratories to utilize the APHL Informatics Messaging Services cloud platform. Mrs. Jones provides detailed guidance on the development of eMaRC Plus software, made freely available to process cancer pathology and biomarker reports. She works closely with laboratory information system vendors to test and implement standardized cancer data exchange with cancer registries. She provided input on the development of the HL7 FHIR Cancer Pathology Data Sharing Implementation Guide for reporting pathology data to EHRs and cancer registries. Her collaboration with the DHHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the National Cancer Institute contributed to the development of the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) Cancer Dataset.

Dr. Klepeis is a pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She trained in hematopathology and clinical informatics and signs out medical kidney biopsies. Dr. Klepeis serves as medical director of the Laboratory Information System at MGH and recently took on the role as one of the clinical leads for the enterprise-wide implementation of Epic Beaker at Mass General Brigham. She is also program director of the ACGME-accredited Clinical Informatics Fellowship there, which is open to trainees from all medical specialties. She is involved with various informatics-related projects in anatomic pathology at Mass General Brigham, and her interests include synoptic reporting, structured data capture, and implementation of whole slide imaging workflows in anatomic pathology. Additionally, Dr. Klepeis serves as chair of the CAP Pathology Electronic Reporting (PERT) Committee.

Dr. Lewis received his medical degree, completed his internal medicine residency, and served as chief resident at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. After completing a hematology/oncology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he served as chief fellow, he returned to Houston to work at the MD Anderson Cancer Center for four years, with a dual appointment in general & gastrointestinal medical oncology, before assuming the directorship of gastrointestinal oncology at Intermountain Health in 2016. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation and as vice president of American Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Support. He is also a social media influencer within the oncology community, where he energizes lively discussions on Twitter and elsewhere on topical issues in oncology and public health care. Follow him on Twitter (X) @marklewismd.

Following medical school at the University of Ottawa, Dr. Pollett completed his residency in anatomic pathology at the University of Toronto and a gastrointestinal pathology fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital. He then completed a master’s degree in Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation focusing on medical informatics. Dr. Pollett’s MSc and research brought him into the world of familial registries, hereditary cancer, and molecular pathology, and he has focused on information repositories driving clinical innovation.

He was the first medical co-director for the division of Diagnostic Medical Genetics at Sinai, where he has been fortunate to work alongside colleagues in the laboratory, clinical, and genetics spheres in making Sinai a leader in hereditary and tumor molecular genetic testing. Dr. Pollett also serves as the provincial lead for the Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Program (PLMP) at Ontario Health, Cancer Care Ontario. In this role he has helped standardize and expand molecular pathology testing throughout Ontario.

Mr. Seegers is an internationally renowned expert in pathology information. He currently serves as Senior Advisor and Administrator at Foundation Palga, where he oversees national pathology and molecular protocols, focusing on synoptic reporting. Previously, he led the cytology department at the Pathology & Cytology Laboratory Foundation West-Brabant, where he was also responsible for IT and quality control. Mr. Seegers is also chief medical information officer at the School of Medical Physics and Engineering at the Technical University of Eindhoven.

Mr. Seegers contributes to several international efforts, including his roles as a member of the digitalization working group of the Belgium Society of Pathology, a member of the Structured Reporting Implementation Committee of ICCR in Sydney, and a contributor to the SNOMED International Cancer Synoptic Reporting Clinical Project Group in London. Additionally, he has served on the guideline committee for Cytopathology at FMS Utrecht and the Cytopathology committee of the Dutch Pathology Society. His educational background includes a Medical Engineering degree from the Dr. Struycken Institute/University of Applied Sciences in Leiden, studies in social psychology and economics at the Dutch Open University, and certifications in quality control and standardization from Kerteza and the NEN Dutch Standardization Institute.

Dr. Van Dyke is a medical officer in the Data Quality, Analysis, and Interpretation Branch of the Surveillance Research Program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dual trained in anatomic pathology and cancer epidemiology, Dr. Van Dyke leads Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-linked, pathology-related initiatives: the Virtual Tissue Repository Pilot and Program, the Residual Tissue Repositories, and the Pediatric Cancer Whole Slide Imaging Pilot. She also is the founder and co-chair of the Cancer Pathology Coding Histology And Registration Terminology (Cancer PathCHART) initiative. Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Van Dyke earned her MD and PhD from Wayne State University School of Medicine, with graduate training in cancer biology. She completed postgraduate medical residency training in anatomic pathology at Yale-New Haven Hospital, surgical pathology subspecialty training in thoracic pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at NCI. She serves as the NCI/SEER Liaison to the CAP Cancer Committee.