Composite patient reports: a laboratory informatics perspective and pilot project for personalized medicine and translational research.

Clinical laboratories are a strong and integral partner in personalized health care. Laboratory information systems hold a vast amount of data representing human phenotypes, genotypes, biomarkers, progression of disease and response to therapy. These structured and unstructured free text data are critical for patient care and a resource for personalized medicine and translational research. Laboratory data are integrated into many electronic medical records that provide "summary reports" and "trending" to visualize longitudinal patient data. However, these generic reports are not sufficient to manage complex sub-specialty patients. There is an urgent need for end-user driven composite reports for the care of such patients. Using multiple myeloma as a model, this pilot was performed to assess the needs of stakeholders and create a customized report. This laboratory informatics solution is delivered at the point of care through the hospital EMR. Future work will involve further integration with hospital systems to promote clinical decision support and translational research.