Using Epic for Earlier Diagnosis and Faster Treatment of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is responsible for more deaths each year than colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined, but it has remained difficult to diagnose nationwide. Of more than 1 million lung CT scan results identified as potentially abnormal each year, 96% turn out to be benign.

Physicians at Kaiser Permanente Northern California wanted to zero in on the 4% of cases where the nodules actually are malignant, so they used Epic to implement a program that would improve their detection rate. Radiologists began placing electronic markers on CT exams with lung masses present, prompting Epic to pull information from the patient’s medical history into a simple report and send it to a team of cancer experts from various specialties to review.

At Kaiser Permanente Oakland, the average time between a lung cancer diagnosis and surgery dropped from the U.S. average of 40 days to just 16 days. Meanwhile, Kaiser Permanente North Valley saw a 7.6% decrease in the number of patients whose lung cancer had already spread to other organs prior to diagnosis.

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