NCG-KCDO EMR Initiative
In 2022, a survey conducted by the National Cancer Grid (NCG) among its member hospitals revealed that less than 15% were utilizing some form of electronic medical records (EMRs), and fully integrated EMRs were found in less than 10% of the hospitals. Over 80% of the centers identified the need for significant improvement in oncology-specific EMRs. Based on these findings, NCG launched the EMR initiative to develop and deploy oncology-specific EMR solutions that adhere to NCG guidelines across its network, to transform cancer care in India.
The NCG EMR initiative is a first-of-its-kind major initiative in India towards the important objective of driving integrated care. NCG has also launched the Leading EMR Adopter Program (LEAP) to identify and support NCG network centres that are willing to participate in implementing ABDM compliant NCG Empanelled Oncology EMRs.
Key objectives of NCG EMR Initiative
Create Strong Oncology
EMR Ecosystem
Select EMR with strong core capabilities and business focus
- Develop oncology specific EMR requirements
- Vendor selection and empanelment
Help EMRs enhance their solutions for cancer care
- Develop modules & templates
- Drive interoperability across empaneled EMRs
- Establish common key performance indicators and dashboards
Support Hospitals in EMR Procurement & Implementation
Support Hospitals procure appropriate empaneled EMR
- Promote adoption of EMRs
- Simplify EMR procurement process for hospitals
Support Hospitals to fastrack EMR adoption -
LEAP Program
- Provide funding support
Support implementation and post implementation usage
- Provide EMR implementation support
- Track EMR implementation usage and provide feedback and support
Engage with Hospitals to Enhance
Care & Innovation
Enhanced cancer care within a hospital
- Timely access to patient records
- Clinical decision support
- Clinical KPI and metrics
Care coordination across hospitals
- Seamless transfer of patient records across NCG facilities
Aggregate data for innovation
- Cancer registries
- Cancer control planning
- Health benefit computation
- Real world data for clinical trials
Electronic Medical Records are important for hospitals as they streamline clinical workflows, reduce documentation time, and improve coordination among healthcare providers.
Challenges faced by Hospitals in EMR Selection and Implementation.
- EMR selection process can be complicated
- Hospitals don’t have technical expertise to select the best EMR product
- EMR products lack oncology specific capabilities and workflows
- EMR purchase and implementation need meaningful investment
NCG KCDO launched the Leading EMR Adoption Program (LEAP) to help hospitals procure and implement EMRs. Key benefits of NCG LEAP include:
Empanelled EMR Vendors
NCG has empanelled six leading EMR vendors through a rigorous evaluation process to develop and implement ABDM compliant oncology-specific EMRs across its network.
Enhanced EMR Oncology Capabilities
NCG has engaged with senior oncologists to help the empanelled EMR vendors add and enhance oncology specific functionalities in their EMR products. Key areas of enhancement include Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Surgical Oncology and Multi-Disciplinary tumour Board. In addition, all EMR products are required to have consistent clinical KPIs, dashboard and interoperability requirements.
NER Medical Oncology Module 2.0
NER Surgical Oncology Module 2.0
NER Radiation Oncology Module 2.0
Financial Aid through Leading EMR Adoption Program (LEAP)
NCG-KCDO is providing significant financial aid to NCG hospitals to purchase and implement NCG empanelled EMR products. In addition, NCG hospitals can benefit from preferred pricing and priority support.
Support in EMR Vendor Selection and Implementation
NCG KCDO assists NCG network hospitals who join LEAP by offering a comprehensive package of support services for end-to-end processes. Please refer to the NCG EMR Resource Library for a list of key resources which can be used by hospitals across their digital transformation journey.
Contact us today to learn more and get started with your LEAP Journey!
Email: ncgemr@gmail.com
Phone: 022-24177300 Ext 6889
The NCG EMR initiative aims to establish an ecosystem of EMR products that have strong capabilities in oncology, comply with NCG clinical workflows and clinical indicators, and support interoperability and ABDM compliance.
Key Benefits of NCG EMR initiative for EMR vendors
EMR companies can use the following resources to enhance their products for cancer care.
NCG support in developing oncology specific requirements
NCG KCDO released the NCG EMR Requirements (NER V2.0) – a comprehensive set of EMR requirements needed for effective management of patients with cancer. Additional clinical modules have been developed to provide more detail on clinical workflows that can streamline and optimize the process for clinicians. EMR companies can use the NER V2.0 and the clinical modules to enhance their products for cancer care.
NER 2.0
NER Medical Oncology Module 2.0
NER Surgical Oncology Module 2.0
NER Radiation Oncology Module 2.0
NCG support for building clinical KPIs and dashboard
NCG KCDO has developed key performance indicators that include clinical, operational and financial metrics to help monitor performance for clinicians and administrators. This will also create a foundation for streamlining the data capture and building a cancer data registry in the future. EMR vendors can integrate these KPIs into their systems to provide standardized reporting and dashboards.
NCG support in clinical data interoperability
NCG KCDO has developed a blueprint leveraging the existing ABDM architecture to drive interoperability across systems including specific clinical indicators (data dictionary) for the most common cancer types. EMR vendors can adopt this blueprint and data dictionary to enhance their systems' integration capabilities with other EMRs and digital solutions.
NCG support in enhancing UI/UX for cancer workflows
NCG KCDO has published best practices on UI/UX guidelines for digital health systems and provided recommendations on implementation. EMR vendors can adopt the UI/UX framework to improve the user experience of their existing systems and new product development that can help accelerate adoption of such systems.
To support both hospitals and EMR vendors to accelerate development and adoption of Oncology specific EMRs, NCG-KCDO has developed a list of key resources. The NCG-KCDO team will add additional resources over time to provide a higher level of support over time.
If you want to contribute to the NCG Resource Library or have questions or comments, please write to us at ncgemr@gmail.com.
| # | Key Resources | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | NCG EMR Requirements [NER V2.0] |
A comprehensive set of EMR requirements developed by a team of experts in oncology and technology. The overall document has 4 sections:
|
| 2 | NER Medical Oncology Module 2.0 |
EMR Requirements to support Medical Oncology, developed by NCG Experts. The module includes 5 Key components:
|
| 3 | NER Surgical Oncology Module 2.0 |
EMR Requirements to support Surgical Oncology, developed by NCG Experts. The module includes 5 Key components:
|
| 4 | NER Radiation Oncology Module 2.0 |
EMR Requirements to support Radiation Oncology, developed by NCG Experts. The module includes 5 Key components:
|
| 5 | Key Performance Indicators | A curated list of clinical, operational and financial metrics across the continuum of the patients’ journey in the hospital. Each indicator is characterized by a detailed numerator, denominator, formula, and clear inclusion and exclusion criteria. |
| 6 | LEAP Program Overview | An overview of the rigorous due diligence process followed to empanel the 6 EMR vendors and the benefits of the program including funding support available to NCG registered govt./trust centres. |
| 7 | EMR Vendor Contacts | Contact information for each of the six NCG empanelled EMR vendors for ease of communication. |
| 8 | NCG EMR Vendor Kit | Detailed product information related to marketing and product demos for six NCG empanelled EMR vendors. Access to this document requires submitting a request for permission. Please click on the vendor’s name to submit request. |
| 9 | Expression of Interest | A template to formally apply for funding from NCG. It’s the first step to officially get enrolled into the LEAP Program. Hospitals are required to fill in the template on their organization letterhead and send a soft copy to ncgemr@gmail.com with a cc to ceo.ncgkcdo@gmail.com |
| 10 | Sample MoU | Key terms of engagement between NCG and the hospital participating in the LEAP Program. |
| 11 | Sample RFP | Template for hospitals who join LEAP and want to run a limited tender between the six NCG empanelled EMR vendors. The document has |
| 12 | Sample Contract/SLAs | Recommended Service Level Agreements between EMR vendor and hospital |
| 13 | EMR UI/UX Guidelines & Sample Medical Oncology Module | Framework for UI/UX along with best practices for digital health system design. Includes mock-ups for a chemotherapy module. |
Hospitals - Join the LEAP Program & NCG will co-fund for your EMR initiative!
Enhance your hospital's oncology care by joining the LEAP program!
For participation and funding support, email ncgemr@gmail.com with Expression of Interest.