Cancer care is changing—fast.
New treatments, new diagnostics, new data. Every day, oncologists and care teams make decisions that can change (or even save) lives. But all that innovation comes with a challenge: how to manage the data behind it.
And here’s the truth: unstructured data slows us down.
The Problem with Unstructured Data
Pathology reports. Genomic profiles. Radiology scans. Clinician notes. Most of it still lives in PDFs, faxes, and free-text documents. That kind of data is hard to search. Hard to share. Hard to use.
You can’t build precision oncology on PDFs.
You need structure.
Structured Data = Actionable Data
Structured data transforms free-text into fields. Into drop-downs. Into data points that systems can analyze, share, and act on.
For example:
A stage III colorectal cancer diagnosis coded as “C18.7”
A KRAS G12D mutation stored in a discrete field
A chemotherapy start date tied to a specific care protocol
That’s not just cleaner data—it’s clinically useful data.
Why It Matters
Structured data enables:
Faster tumor board prep
Seamless clinical trial matching
Better population health analytics
Safer handoffs between care teams
Interoperability across EMRs, labs, and imaging systems
And perhaps most importantly, it gives patients faster access to the right treatment, at the right time.
Real-World Impact
Imagine two hospitals treating the same type of lung cancer. One uses structured synoptic reporting. The other relies on scanned PDFs.
Which one can:
Instantly identify all patients eligible for an EGFR-targeted therapy?
Easily report to the tumor registry?
Share clean data with a pharma partner running a study?
The one with structured data. Every time.
The Future Is Structured
Precision medicine can’t be imprecise. AI tools can’t learn from noise. And care teams can’t wait for data they can’t find.
Structured data is not a luxury. It’s the foundation. The backbone. The thing that makes everything else in modern cancer care possible.
Ken Dec is Chief Marketing Officer at mTuitive. mTuitive is revolutionizing the capture and use of structured data for improved cancer care, at the forefront of shaping the future of medicine, enabling the best minds in healthcare to make better decisions and provide the best possible outcomes for patients.
