Oncology Informatics: Status Quo and Outlook.

Putora, Paul Martin; Baudis, Michael; Beadle, Beth M; El Naqa, Issam; Giordano, Frank A; Nicolay, Nils H

Oncology has undergone rapid progress, with emerging developments in areas including cancer stem cells, molecularly targeted therapies, genomic analyses, and individually tailored immunotherapy. These advances have expanded the tools available in the fight against cancer. Some of these have seen broad media coverage resulting in justified public attention. However, these achievements have only been possible due to rapid developments in the expanding field of biomedical informatics and information technology (IT). Artificial intelligence, radiomics, electronic health records, and electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMS) are only a few of the developments enabling further progress in oncology. The promising impact of IT in oncology will only become reality through a multidisciplinary approach to the complex challenges ahead.