An Application of an EHR Based on Conceptual Modeling to Integrate Clinical and Genomic Data and Guide Therapeutic Strategy

Currently, data management in oncology department is complex and requires advanced Information Systems (ISs) to process data where “omic” information should be integrated together with patient’s clinical data to improve data analysis and decision-making process. This research paper reports a practical experience in this context. A Conceptual Model (CM) has been designed to develop an Information System (IS) in order to manage clinical, pathological, and molecular data in a holistic way at the oncology department of two main Hospitals in Paraguay. Additionally, model-based archetypes have been proposed to specify the selected user interaction strategy. The CM and its associated archetypes are the basis to develop a clinical IS in order to load -firstly- and manage -secondly- all the clinical data that the domain requires, showing how feasible the approach is in practice, and how much the corresponding clinical data management is improved. In this work, we want to reinforce with this real experience how using a CM along with archetypes correctly helps to design, develop and manage better information systems, emphasizing the relevance of the selected clinical domain.