ONCO-FAIR Project: Improving Data Interoperability in Oncology Chemotherapy Treatments for Data Reuse

The ONCO-FAIR project’s initial experimentation aims to enhance data interoperability in oncology chemotherapy treatments, adhering to the FAIR principles. This study focuses on integrating the HL7 FHIR standard to address interoperability challenges within chemotherapy data exchange. Collaborating with healthcare institutions in Rennes, the research team assessed the limitations of current standards such as PN13, mCODE, and OSIRIS, leading to the customization of twelve FHIR resources complemented by two chemotherapy-specific extensions. The methodological approach follows the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) framework, organizing the process into four key stages to ensure the effectiveness and relevance of health data reuse for research. This framework facilitated the identification of chemotherapy-specific needs, the evaluation of existing standards, and data modeling through a FHIR implementation guide. The article underscores the importance of upstream interoperability for aligning chemotherapy software with clinical data warehouse infrastructure, showcasing the proposed solution’s capability to overcome interoperability barriers and promote data reuse in line with FAIR principles. Furthermore, it discusses future directions, including extending this approach to other oncology data categories and enhancing downstream interoperability with health data sharing platforms.