PALO ALTO, Calif., May 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- EQUICARE CS, a cancer survivorship case management software program jointly offered by Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) and Equicare Health, Inc., has been included by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) in its "Best Practices Repository." The repository is a list of resources designed to help cancer treatment centers in the U.S. adopt rigorous standards for high-quality patient-centered care, in order to qualify to become CoC-accredited cancer programs.
There are over 13 million cancer patients currently living in the U.S., and the number is expected to grow to 18 million by 2020. Only a very small number of cancer treatment centers are set up to deliver survivorship care once treatment is over. Nevertheless, after treatment for cancer, many patients require post-treatment follow-up care for late effects of treatment, secondary cancers, and quality of life issues. Some need further diagnostic testing, or nutritional and counseling services.
"Cancer survivors benefit most when they have access to coordinated post-treatment care," said Malcolm Wright, vice president of product management at Equicare Health. "Therefore, the CoC has mandated that all organizations seeking their accreditation will have to create a formal plan for delivering survivorship care by 2014, and they will have to implement that plan by 2015. EQUICARE CS can help them comply with these requirements."
According to the American College of Surgeons, CoC accreditation is a voluntary commitment by a cancer program that ensures patients will have access to a full scope of services required to diagnose, treat, rehabilitate, and support patients with cancer and their families. By 2015, all CoC-accredited institutions will have to produce survivorship care plans for each of their patients, including a record of care received, important disease characteristics, and a follow-up care plan incorporating recognized evidence-based standards of care, when available.
The EQUICARE CS case management system was specifically designed to help clinics provide cancer survivors with a personalized plan for follow-up care. It is a web-based, patient-centric tool that is designed to help cancer survivors, their caregivers, and their healthcare providers achieve better clinical compliance, which can result in improved patient outcomes following treatment for cancer.
"The EQUICARE CS system guides clinicians in generating a care plan based on best practices and established guidelines," said Chris Toth, vice president of marketing for Varian Medical Systems. "It offers patients round-the-clock access to their care plans through a personalized portal on the Internet. We are very gratified that the American College of Surgeons has recognized the value of this system, which was designed to help cancer centers implement robust, world-class survivorship care programs."
Online resources:
American College of Surgeons Cancer Programs:
http://www.facs.org/cancer/
COC Best Practices Repository:
https://www.socialtext.net/cancer_standards/coc_best_practices_repository
(for Survivorship materials, click on "Proprietary Material")
ABOUT VARIAN MEDICAL SYSTEMS
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies high-energy X-ray devices for cargo screening and non-destructive testing applications. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 6,000 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Meryl Ginsberg, 650.424.6444
meryl.ginsberg@varian.com
SOURCE Varian Medical Systems