Cancer Center Informatics Society outlines the future of Interoperability

with pediatric oncology as the foundational use case

The Cancer Center Informatics Society (Ci4CC) is advancing plans for an Interoperability Working Group within the existing Oracle | Ci4CC initiative. Originally conceived by Sorena Nadaf-Rahrov (Ci4CC) and Adam Resnick (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) leading up to the 25^th Cancer Center Summit Chaired by the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, the proposed effort uses pediatric oncology as the foundational case study for connecting clinical care, research, diagnostic imaging, genomics, clinical trials, and clinician-supervised artificial intelligence.

Sorena selected Oracle Health to support this effort following discussions with Seema Verma, GM and EVP at Oracle Health and Life Sciences, who expressed a desire to highlight interoperability as a central priority. Building on that direction, Ci4CC, Oracle Health, and CHOP are exploring how to translate the concept into a practical, scalable framework. The objective is to make complete, clinically meaningful patient information easier to assemble and use across institutions while preserving patient consent, institutional governance, and clinical accountability.

Building on an existing foundation

Pediatric cancers are rare, making collaboration across institutions essential to discovery and treatment. Children may receive care at multiple hospitals, while their clinical records, imaging, molecular findings, and trial information remain distributed across separate systems.  During a series of  planning discussions, CHOP described a consent-based Bulk FHIR workflow implemented at five pediatric institutions through the ARPA-H RADIANT program, with a longer-term expansion strategy targeting approximately 200 institutions. This experience provides a practical foundation for evaluating how standardized exchange and simpler institutional onboarding could support broader participation. Proposed National Working Group would bring together Ci4CC’s cancer-center community, CHOP’s pediatric oncology and data-science expertise, and Oracle Health’s current interoperability capabilities to define a focused pilot and a phased implementation roadmap.

From data exchange to clinical actionability

The proposed collaboration would focus on five connected priorities:

1. Simpler institutional onboarding: Evaluate standardized connections that reduce local integration work and support consent-based longitudinal data exchange.
2. Treatment-oriented interoperability: Explore TEFCA and QHIN workflows that help authorized clinicians assemble records for consultations, tumor boards, and trial assessments.
3. Imaging and molecular integration: Connect diagnostic-quality imaging, genomic and molecular findings, and clinical information into a more complete patient view.
4. Clinician-supervised decision support: Evaluate tools that assist with record summarization, tumor board preparation, and clinical-trial eligibility review.
5. Governance and measurable implementation: Define consent, identity matching, provenance, auditability, and success measures before broader expansion.

These priorities remain subjects for joint planning and evaluation. Working Group scope, participating pilot institutions, and implementation commitments would be established through the initiative’s governance process.

Connecting the vision to the PCX Innovation Summit

The clinical importance of this work is reflected in the scheduled PCX Innovation Summit on Thursday, November 12, 2026, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Day 1, focused on PCX Clinical Discovery & Clinical Actionability, brings together pediatric oncology leaders, patient advocates, government representatives, and technology partners.

The agenda connects directly with the proposed working group’s priorities through:

·     Clinical demonstrations addressing medulloblastoma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor.

·     Discussions of real-world data, externally controlled trials, decentralized trials, and clinical-trial matching.

·     Cross-government collaboration to improve patient health.

·     Partner presentations on imaging connectivity, electronic health record connectivity, medical devices, and the patient voice.

A practical path forward

Ci4CC’s next priority is to convene a technical working session, define an achievable initial pilot, and establish shared measures of progress. Pediatric oncology offers a focused starting point, with the longer-term opportunity to extend successful approaches across academic and community cancer centers. Through this proposed effort, Ci4CC seeks to help turn fragmented information into connected knowledge that supports research, clinical collaboration, and better-informed decisions for patients and families.