Improving and spreading a tool that searches cancer medical records
Extending the Capabilities and Reach of EMERSE in Support of Cancer Research
This project makes a free-text medical-record search tool easier to use at more hospitals so researchers can find important cancer information in doctors' notes.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Michigan at Ann Arbor NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Ann Arbor, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11145100 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you are a cancer patient at a participating hospital, this project will help researchers search the free-text portions of your medical record to find things like staging, tumor markers, treatment response, family history, and social needs. The team is enhancing EMERSE so it can be deployed at more cancer centers and can securely query across sites to return obfuscated patient counts. Improvements include better user features, administrator controls, audit logging, and safer cross-site searching. Those changes aim to help researchers identify eligible patients and important clinical details more quickly while protecting patient privacy.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Patients with cancer whose medical records (including doctors' free-text notes) are stored at participating hospitals or cancer centers are the most likely to be included.
Not a fit: People whose records are not in participating institutions or whose notes lack detailed free-text entries may not see any direct benefit from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Could help researchers find eligible patients and key clinical details faster, which may speed up cancer discoveries and trial matching.
How similar studies have performed: EMERSE is an established tool used for many years at the University of Michigan and is already being rolled out to other centers, so this work builds on a proven approach rather than creating something wholly untested.
Where this research is happening
Ann Arbor, United States
- University of Michigan at Ann Arbor — Ann Arbor, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Hanauer, David Alan — University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
- Study coordinator: Hanauer, David Alan
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.