The KIMONA project (AI-Based Optimization of Cancer Registry Reporting in North Rhine-Westphalia) is funded by the European Union and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia under the EFRE/JTF NRW program.
The objective of this three-year project is to significantly reduce the manual workload of physicians and medical documentation specialists involved in reporting cancer cases to the State Cancer Registry of North Rhine-Westphalia. At the same time, the project aims to improve the quality and completeness of reported data and shorten the time between a reportable event and its submission.
Background
The collection and reporting of oncological data is already based on the standardized Oncological Basic Data Set (oBDS). However, the information required for reporting is typically distributed across various clinical systems, such as hospital information systems, pathology systems, and radiology systems, and often has to be manually consolidated. This process is time-consuming and requires substantial human resources. In addition, meeting the legally mandated reporting deadline of six weeks is often challenging in everyday clinical practice. Ensuring the completeness and consistency of reports also remains a major challenge.
Objectives of KIMONA
KIMONA develops AI-based methods to support the automated extraction, integration, and preparation of relevant information for cancer registry reporting. The goal is to make clinical workflows more efficient while sustainably improving the quality of cancer registry data.
In collaboration with the West German Cancer Center (WTZ) Münster, the Medical Informatics and Digital Health Center (MeDIC) is responsible for key technical and methodological aspects of the project. These include requirements analysis as well as the conception, design, and implementation of interfaces between hospital information systems and research databases. In addition, MeDIC focuses on the application and integration of externally developed AI tools, including their training and evaluation using suitable datasets.
Overall, the project contributes to the digitalization and streamlining of medical documentation processes while simultaneously improving the data foundation for research, healthcare, and public health.
Project Partners
University Hospital Cologne, Center for Integrated Oncology Cologne (Project Coordination); University Hospital Aachen, Center for Integrated Oncology; University Hospital Bonn, Center for Integrated Oncology; University Hospital Düsseldorf, Center for Integrated Oncology; University Hospital Essen, West German Cancer Center (WTZ); University Hospital Münster, West German Cancer Center (WTZ); State Cancer Registry of North Rhine-Westphalia; Tamed.AI, Essen.
