CanShare October 2026 newsletter

The 2026 ACT-NOW regimen review workshops brought together clinicians, pharmacists, Te Aho o Te Kahu, and the New Zealand Formulary to review the national systemic anti-cancer therapy regimen library. 16 workshops were held between May and August across medical oncology, haematology, and supportive care, which used analytics to identify gaps and support discussion.

The workshops approved 48 firm and six conditional regimen additions, including 26 identified through prescribing analytics. They also showed how ACT-NOW can turn prescribing patterns into practical clinical questions — for example, reviewing 3-weekly versus 6-weekly pembrolizumab use and variation in high- versus low-dose folinic acid.

The workshops showed how analytics can support clinical review and strengthen regimen library maintenance. As national data coverage improves, the project team will begin embedding data more firmly into the review process.

Quarterly data submissions
We are partnering with the Northern Region Cancer Centres to begin receiving Radiation Oncology Collection (ROC) data submissions from the new Whangārei Cancer Centre, in the quarter three ROC submission process in October 2026. We are using a regional centre reporting approach, where treatment activity is attributed to the site where care is delivered, while a shared oncology information system is used across the region. This approach will support more accurate reporting of treatment activity and improve visibility of services delivered at individual centres.

We are redeveloping the ROC explorer
Work is underway to enhance the ROC explorer to improve analytics outputs, visualisations, narrative reporting, and usability. The redesign was informed by stakeholder feedback, data collected through the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) survey, and common data requests from the sector.

We will be looking for volunteers to support clinical review and user acceptance testing in October and November, ahead of the launch in early 2027. In the meantime, the current ROC dashboard remains available.

Treatment definitions
We updated the ROC treatment definitions for first treatment and retreatment to better reflect clinical practice. The definition is now independent of treatment intent, recognising that retreatment can be used for curative intent.

Clinicians reviewed the revised definitions, which were endorsed by the ROC Governance Subcommittee and implemented in the ROC Snowflake data platform. For more information, email canshare@teaho.govt.nz.

SNOMED CT July 2026 release
In the July 2026 SNOMED CT New Zealand edition, CanShare published 20 new concepts, created one new reference set, and updated 39 reference sets. We are continuing to rationalise reference sets and will soon bring the total down to 436. Release notes outlining the content of the New Zealand extension, including CanShare content, is available on the SNOMED International Release Management page.

This release focused on systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT), with 51 new regimen concepts and almost 600 existing regimen concepts reviewed, updated, and optimised. Development of regimen grouper concepts is also underway to support future analytics and reporting requirements.

You can view this content online using the SNOMED CT Browser and via API using the New Zealand Health Terminology Service (NZHTS). Also, now available from the NZHTS are 2,411 active ValueSets containing CanShare SNOMED CT content, to support accurate and detailed cancer data collection across CanShare projects and implementations.

World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of Tumours (Blue Book) 6^th editionWe have begun SNOMED CT coding activities to support the WHO Blue Book 6^th Edition. Chapters are being released progressively, with terminology development aligned to this chapter-by-chapter approach. The first chapter for terminology development is digestive system tumours, with breast tumours expected to follow.

This work will support the consistent recording of tumour classification information using SNOMED CT and align CanShare terminology with the latest international pathology standards. We are working closely with a lead pathologist for each chapter to ensure terminology remains clinically accurate, relevant, and reflects contemporary practice.

International collaboration
The CanShare team continues to collaborate with the international SNOMED CT community to promote consistency and reuse terminologies. Ancillary studies terminology developed by CanShare is currently being progressed for inclusion in the SNOMED CT International Edition. As work on the WHO Blue Book 6^th Edition continues, there will be opportunities to add new concepts within the International Edition to align with international pathology standards and reduce the need for local extensions.

ASAP (AI-assisted Structured Anatomical Pathology) was a CanShare programme pilot to explore how AI could transform cancer pathology reports into structured, standardised information for secure sharing and reuse across the health system. Focusing on breast and colorectal cancer, the pilot demonstrated an end-to-end pathway linking pathology reporting, AI-assisted data extraction, SNOMED CT coding, FHIR interoperability standards, and the CanShare platforms CanSoT and CanTel.

Christchurch and Auckland based laboratory pathologists either narrated or transferred their text reports into the Health New Zealand Tuhi application. This application converted these reports into SNOMED CT coded data, making information available securely via CanShare.

The pilot successfully processed 117 pathology cases with near 100% accuracy for SNOMED CT coding within scope. More importantly, it showed how cancer information can be captured and prepared for near real-time reuse to support clinical care and multidisciplinary meetings, cancer intelligence, service planning, research, and equity monitoring. ASAP confirmed that this reporting is feasible and would provide a solid foundation for recording, managing, and sharing cancer data in the future.

This pilot is expanding to include structured surgical, pathology, radiology, and multidisciplinary meeting (MDM) reporting across the cancer care pathway. We are using ovarian cancer and brain tumour services to see how AI-assisted, standards-based cancer information could be captured during routine care, shared securely between clinical teams, and reused to support cancer intelligence, service improvement, and future tumour-specific registers.

We would like to acknowledge the support of Deloitte, AWS, and Health New Zealand in the successful pilot. We also extend our sincere thanks to the pathology teams in Christchurch and Auckland, whose expertise, time, and commitment were critical to this success. This work was presented at the recent Digital AI Summit conference and reported in eHealthNews.

Cancer burden forecast project
The forecasting cancer burden project continues to make strong progress. The cervical cancer forecasting model that used simulated cervical screening data was key in informing the development of the first New Zealand Cervical Cancer Elimination Plan. The team will refine the model using real screening data once access is confirmed.

Another key milestone was successfully applying the forecasting model to lung cancer. This showed its potential to support broader cancer planning and decision-making across the cancer system.

Cancer Information Hub
Since April 2026, this project has delivered several key milestones - the launch of a new CanStats web page, updates to the State of Cancer explorer, and enhancing other data explorers. This includes:

• Updating the ROC explorer based on stakeholder feedback, survey analysis, agreed measures, technical specification development, and prototype design decisions.
• The Route to Diagnosis explorer update has also advanced, with pipeline refactoring completed and indicator recalculation and output validation in progress.

To support the ongoing maintenance and enhancement of the Information Hub, work is underway to establish a new Monitoring, Evaluation and Maintenance Plan, visualisation standards, supporting GitLab infrastructure, dashboard templates, and process maps.

This month we thank three of our colleagues in the Data and Analytics team for their dedication, expertise, and commitment to improving cancer data and outcomes, and wish them every success on their new career progressions in the sector.

Broden Bishop is taking up a teaching position to help train the next generation of radiation therapists. During his time with the Agency, Broden has made a significant contribution to our mahi, bringing exceptional technical expertise and deep knowledge of radiation oncology data analytics. He has played a key role in strengthening our analytical capabilities, improving the quality and accessibility of radiation oncology data, and supporting work that informs cancer service planning and decision-making across the sector. We are grateful for the expertise, energy, and enthusiasm Broden brought to the team.

Kate Wakefield, Principal Advisor, has been a major contributor to the CanShare programme and one of Aotearoa's leading SNOMED CT practitioners. She led the ACT-NOW programme, guiding it through the successful launch of the Raurau Ngaehe e-prescribing system, and became a national resource in systemic anti-cancer therapy data. Kate’s expertise was recognised internationally when her abstract, Using SNOMED CT in the prescribing of systemic anti-cancer therapy, was accepted for presentation at the SNOMED CT Expo 2026 in Sydney.

In January 2026 Kate took on the role as delivery facilitator for the Health Data Platform (HDP), working closely with Health New Zealand to support the migration of the ACT-NOW and ROC datasets onto the new national platform. She consistently showed strong management, communication, problem-solving, strategic thinking, flexibility, and emotional intelligence in guiding the project across technical delivery teams and clinical stakeholders.

Tash Murray, Senior Project Manager also made significant contributions across cancer information and data initiative in the four years with the Agency. She led the ROC, including stakeholder engagement, data requests, dashboard redevelopment, and ongoing improvements. Her leadership brought clinicians, analysts, and sector stakeholders together to achieve shared outcomes.

Tash also became a recognised SNOMED CT expert, advancing national cancer terminology standards and supporting initiatives including the Breast Cancer Foundation National Register, pathology data standards, coding, and cancer classification projects. She is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most experienced cancer-focused SNOMED CT practitioners.

Both Kate and Tash contributions have strengthened New Zealand’s cancer information systems which will benefit the sector for years to come.

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If you have any questions, feedback, or would like to contribute to CanShare, please email us at canshare@teaho.govt.nz.

Our next newsletter will be published in April/May 2027. Stay tuned for more updates!