Chronology of Events

1997 - 1998    

• Cancer Surgery Working Group (CSWG) established as a result of the lack of cancer surgery guidelines and meaningful outcomes indicators. Finalized Terms of Reference, Goals and Objectives.

1999 - 2000    

• Held the first education and consensus workshop. Contracted Softworks Consulting Group to develop a web based surgical medical record (Alberta WebSMR) for collecting surgical data synoptically.

2001 - 2002    

• Presented the Alberta WebSMR to Alberta surgeons for consensus. Approval to put the Alberta WebSMR database into production. Minimum data sets developed for Liver, Rectal, Colon, and Ovarian templates.

2004           

• Pilot of the Alberta WebSMR in eight hospitals across the province and with eight surgeons. Publications in the Annals of Surgical Oncology which documented the benefits of synoptic vs dictated OR reports.

2005

• Formalization of CSWG into Cancer Surgery Alberta (CSA) and creation of a provincial implementation plan.

2006

• Canada Health Infoway approved a proposal to deploy the Alberta WebSMR across Alberta.

2007

• Automatic and immediate access to individual and provincial aggregated outcomes reports allows Alberta WebSMR users to be able to assess their own practice.
• Interface with Alberta NetCare, accessible by every health provider creating one integrated province-wide system linking all points of care to patient information.
• Privacy Impact Assessment accepted by OIPC signifying that the WebSMR protects the privacy & security of patient information.
• Mapped Alberta WebSMR data elements to SNOMED CT, an international standard that allows clinicians & researchers to share comparable data worldwide, across medical specialties and sites of care.
• Alberta WebSMR enhancements include the ability to hyperlink directly to relevant guidelines from questions within the templates and automatic calculation of clinical stage.
• CSA collaborates with Canadian Partnership Against Cancer on the Synoptic Reporting Tools Project, a pan-Canadian collaboration for creating standards and guidelines for cancer treatment and the establishment of a shared national surgical outcomes data base. A pilot porject for synoptic reporting was established for 4 provinces (Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia).

2008

• Alberta WebSMR accredited by the Office of Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development, University of Calgary, for Section 5 accreditation (personal practice review).
• Outcomes reports for the following four tumor groups are available from Alberta WebSMR: Breast, Melanoma, Ovarian and Rectal.

2009

• Completion of WebSMR Implementation Project under Canada Health Infoway.  
• Enhancements have been added to improve esthetics as well as listing pertinent details at the beginning of the report.
• WebSMR is the first system in Alberta to interface with Provincial Client Registry allowing access to the most up to date patient demographic information.
• WebSMR is viewable at the Cross Cancer Institute within the Cancer Corridor's (former Alberta Cancer Board) electronic medical record (ARIA).
• Provincial Surgical Oncology e-Rounds to start in the Fall. 
• Quebec WebSMR goes live on July 8, 2009. (CPAC)