COVID-19 has created new challenges for lung cancer screening programs, in many cases, delaying screenings by several months and creating more difficulty for administrative and scheduling teams.
Thynk Health’s lung cancer solution tracks all screening follow-up and downstream follow-up appointments. Utilizing worklists, the solution prevents patients from falling through the cracks and ensures the success of lung cancer screening programs post-COVID-19.
In addition to the current solution, Thynk Health is adding the ability to collect and submit six new COVID-19-related data elements that have been added by the ACR. This feature will be available at no additional cost and is expected to be released at the end of June 2020.
In response to many facilities postponing non-essential exams due to COVID restrictions, the ACR has released an update to the NRDR screening registries (National Mammography Database, CT Colonography Registry, and Lung Cancer Screening Registry). These new data elements have also been added to investigate a potential relationship between COVID-19 diagnosis and lung cancer.
Three new fields will allow sites to indicate the following:
that an exam was delayed/rescheduled
the original date scheduled
the reason for reschedule (particularly if the reason was COVID-related)
For LCSR participants, there are three additional fields added to capture the following:
if the patient has a COVID-19 diagnosis
the date of diagnosis
testing results
Thynk Health will actively support the six data elements added by the ACR. Healthcare organizations utilizing Thynk Health’s solution will now have the ability to collect and submit the COVID-19 data elements directly to the ACR.
By creating a platform to readily collect and submit this data to the ACR, Thynk Health has a unique opportunity to observe an emerging infectious disease and better understand the impact that COVID-19 may have on the registry screening populations and lung cancer.
About Thynk Health
The Thynk Health platform optimizes data-driven workflows and provides operational and clinical analytics for lung cancer screening programs and other quality initiatives. Thynk Health’s Lung Module automatically identifies patients at risk for lung cancer, automates patient data and ACR submission, automates patient communications, automates tracking of incidental findings, engages providers, provides actionable LCS reports, and offers pulmonary nodule tracking.
