London, England, March 9th 2006 – One of the UK’s leading teaching hospitals has implemented a medical oncology information system from Varian Medical Systems to improve inter-departmental communication and reduce the risk of human error when prescribing chemotherapy drugs for cancer patients. St Bartholomews (Barts) in north-east London has integrated the VARiS MedOncology™ system with its existing networks to create a more fully integrated oncology department. Using this new system, the medical staff expects to enhance patient safety and the quality of care.
Dr Chris Gallagher, clinical director at Barts, says, “The modern treatment of cancer is organised through multidisciplinary teams and not separate departments so that integration of information and the improvement in communication between the departments is of great importance in ensuring safe and optimally effective treatments.‿
VARiS MedOncology provides cancer treatment facilities with software that combines and manages information including appointments, treatment regimens and diagnostic suggestions for both radiation therapy and chemotherapy within a single electronic medical record for each patient. A key element is ‘decision support’, which helps increasingly-busy medical oncology departments to reduce the risk of human error when prescribing and delivering powerful chemotherapy drugs.
Dr Gallagher said VARiS MedOncology has a significant role to play in helping staff to reduce the risk of human error in chemotherapy prescribing, particularly ‘click’ errors when inputting data. “It has been shown in various studies to significantly reduce the incidence of human error in the prescribing process,‿ he said.
He also expects the new system to increase the speed and accuracy of communication between departments, support the identification and handling of new trial drugs, and enable better management of budgetary issues.
VARiS MedOncology is designed to improve patient care by tracking dose levels and drug/allergy interactions. It saves clinical staff time by automating preparation of forms, reports, progress notes and – where applicable – charge capture.
“This system provides cancer treatment facilities with software that combines and manages information including appointments, treatment regimens and diagnostic suggestions for both radiation therapy and chemotherapy within a single electronic medical record for each patient,‿ says Walter Frei, Varian’s VP European sales & marketing operations.
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Editorial contact: Neil Madle, Varian Medical Systems, +44 7786 526068, neil.madle@varian.com
About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., (NYSE:VAR) of Palo Alto, California is the world's leading supplier of equipment and software for treating cancer. The company is also a premier supplier of components including X-ray tubes and flat-panel detectors for medical, scientific, and industrial imaging. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 3,280 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 55 sales and support offices around the world. The company operates manufacturing and engineering centers in Baden (Switzerland), Crawley (England), Haan (Germany), Helsinki (Finland) and Toulouse (France) and has headquarters for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEA) based in Zug, Switzerland. Additional information is available on the company's web site at www.varian.com
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