Built the internal clinical systems for Australia's leading cancer centre

Chris O'Brien Lifehouse is a specialist comprehensive cancer centre in Sydney, treating rare and complex cancers across gynaecological oncology, breast, head and neck, radiation oncology, and other rare cancer specialties.

Like all Australian hospitals, Lifehouse runs on nationally mandated clinical systems built for the whole country — not for a specialist cancer centre. Before Classic Informatics engaged, the hospital had no internal application layer at all. 

• No internal communication system existed for doctors, nurses, or clinical staff
• Referrals were tracked manually with no documented status, reason, or communication trail
• MDT meetings — legally required for cancer care in Australia — were coordinated without documentation
• No document management system for clinical letters or pathological reports
• Reporting relied on generic tools with no Lifehouse-specific context or management dashboards

1. Greenfield build from zero 

Lifehouse had no internal systems to extend or replace. We built the entire clinical application layer from zero — starting where the national PMS stopped and covering every workflow a specialist cancer centre actually needs. 

2. Integrated around national systems 

The national PMS and MIRTH clinical messaging system couldn't be changed. We built around them — auto-fetching referral data via HL7 integration and pulling live clinical data into documents without manual re-entry. 

3. Expanded through clinical adoption 

The portal launched with Gynaecological Oncology. We designed it so other departments could be onboarded without rebuilding anything. It expanded to 9 departments because clinical teams requested access after seeing it work — not through mandate. 

4. Migrated to a governed analytics layer  

Reporting ran across SSRS, Tableau, and Crystal Reports with no consolidated foundation. We migrated the full data architecture to Azure Fabric — building a Bronze to Gold warehouse with Power BI dashboards tailored to Lifehouse's clinical and operational needs. 

Clinical & Referral Portal

• Referral lifecycle management with 50% auto-fetched from MIRTH via HL7 background service
• Automated SMS and email to patients and referring doctors on every referral status change
• Department-specific MDT scheduling — 24–30 patients per session with auto-generated PDF packs
• Document Manager — pre-filled clinical letters from live PMS data, editable and sent in Word or PDF
• Role-based access with self-service admin configuration for departments, templates, and roles

Staff & Compliance System

• Peer and manager performance review workflow with role-based visibility
• Vaccination record management with auto-email reminders for expiring records
• Training course completion tracking with mandatory compliance reporting for NSW Health
• AI-assisted discharge summary module in development — first AI use case at Lifehouse

Data Warehouse & Analytics

• Azure Fabric Lakehouse with Bronze to Gold architecture and incremental daily pipelines
• Patient Demographics Dashboard — daily, monthly, and yearly volumes with population-level insights
• Revenue and Billing Dashboard — monthly revenue vs. budget with department and insurance breakdowns
• Staff Compliance Dashboards — performance review, vaccination, and training completion rates

Lifehouse went from having no internal digital systems to running its full clinical operations — referrals, MDT meetings, document management, staff compliance, and management analytics — through Classic Informatics-built platforms. Nine cancer departments now operate on a single portal that started with one. 

Business Impact 

• 100% of patient referrals now tracked digitally with documented status and communication trail

• MDT meetings across 9 departments run automatically — patient allocations, PDF packs, and invites

• Zero manual steps remaining in referral, MDT, or clinical document workflows

• Azure Fabric data warehouse replaced fragmented generic reporting tools entirely

• AI-assisted discharge summary module in active development at the clinical team's own request