The Flexibility & Customizability of the GO Pathology Workbench Output Report

When I explain the GO Pathology Workbench to my friends and family, I usually do not get very far before defining it as, “a software that helps make reports that get sent to clinicians.” While under-selling some of the finer points of the application, this is essentially correct. At its core, the GO Pathology Workbench (or GO PWB) is a reporting software, and while it has many features, it would lose most (if not all) of its value for its users without the reports that it generates. 

The goal of any software is to fit its users’ needs as best as possible. Since the largest need the GO PWB solves for is report generation, then what can we at GenomOncology do to ensure the output reports fulfill the needs of users? The answer that immediately comes to mind is a simple one that has led to hundreds, if not thousands of hours of design and development effort, a truly customizable report. 

As a Product Specialist at GenomOncology, I spend a substantial amount of time discussing reports, both how existing reports can be improved and how new reports can be implemented. A question that I frequently am asked is, “What can we do on the report?” And my answer is always the same, “What would you like to do?” The GO PWB reports are truly customizable, and we are constantly finding new ways to expand our technical capabilities for our reports in order to continue truly pushing towards being able to handle more and more possibilities. 

Report customization in the GO PWB starts at the highest level, where we can include any of the information seen within the application in any format or table structure. Things like alteration summary tables, therapy and trial matches, custom content, and so much more can be broken into any desired format. 

Results Summary tables help to quickly highlight the pertinent information found in the report.

As we continue to look at the options for reports, the details only get more and more customizable. I often tell clients when sending an example report for their review to remember one simple fact, “Every table, column, color, font, format, and placement can be changed.” This extends within the tables as well, right down to the content that is shown. Showing or hiding information in any technically possible, programmatic way allows our users to ensure the reports are structured how they want, but also that every detail they want to convey is included. Allowing for custom comments, automatically added canned statements, or varying information based on the performed test (such as including VAF for hematological cases) are just some of the many ways we allow users to make sure that whatever information they wish to present throughout the report can be included as expected.

While we often see clients trending towards what we refer to as our “standard” report, there are always changes to be made. This has great benefit to each client, as we commonly hear clients explain to us that the clinicians they work with like their current report format, but have one or two tweaks that they would like to see, but those tweaks could not previously be implemented. By allowing for customization within the GO PWB at the test level, not only can each client have their own report, but each test they run can have any number of differences on the report. This allows for the relevant information to be displayed in whatever the desired state, regardless of the test that is being run. We very commonly see this as clients tend to have separate reports for separate tests, frequently differing between a solid tumor and a heme format.

In reality, the customization does not stop at the tables and contents of a report. Whether it is the overall report format (of which we currently support PDF, DOCX, XML, and TXT), or how those reports are taken from the application and integrated into a client’s workflow. The ability within the GO PWB to generate multiple report formats and drop that data to any location accessible by the server makes for a seamless integration back into most existing workflows. The additional option of messaging results back to an EHR via GO Connect rounds out that integration piece, ensuring not only that a report represents your case data exactly as a client wants, but also that the report itself is then transferred back to the clinician in whatever way the client requires so that the data the report can be utilized.

The Pathology Workbench can produce reports in many formats, including PDF, DOCX, TXT, and XML.

We at GenomOncology like to think of the GO PWB as much more than just a reporting software, but in some ways that does the application a disservice. I could undoubtedly write pages on the GO PWB, and how each feature was implemented and how it serves a specific need that has been communicated to us, but at the end of the day, the GO PWB has one overarching purpose, and that is to generate a report. We frequently discuss how our clients are the experts, and to that extent, we make sure our software is customizable in as many ways as possible, including our reports. This means that the experts get to design exactly what they want their report to look like, from how it is structured to what size the font should, because we truly believe the better the report format fits a clients’ workflow, the better the communication to the clinician, which only can result in ultimately better patient treatment.

Learn more about the GO Pathology Workbench.