EUROPE: Varian Medical Systems Introduces Medical Oncology/Chemotherapy Prescribing System in Europe | Varian

{ "pageType": "news-article", "title": "EUROPE: Varian Medical Systems Introduces Medical Oncology/Chemotherapy Prescribing System in Europe", "articleDate": "July 30, 2004", "introText": "", "category": "Oncology" }

EUROPE: Varian Medical Systems Introduces Medical Oncology/Chemotherapy Prescribing System in Europe

Palo Alto, Ca., July 30, 2004 UK’s Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Early Adopter Varian Medical Systems, the world leader in integrated cancer therapy solutions, is introducing a comprehensive solution for medical oncology, enabling radiotherapy and chemotherapy departments to improve the care and efficiency of treatments using a paperless environment. VARiS MedOncology is a software system for managing medical oncology that includes clinical information tools, patient safety tools, chemotherapy prescribing, pharmacy dispensing, electronic charge capture and tools to support clinical trial participation and the collection and analysis of research data.

“Varian can now offer cancer treatment facilities 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 Sales & Marketing Operations Europe. One of the first hospitals in Europe to implement VARiS MedOncology is Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in the UK, where lead oncology clinician Professor Ann Barrett and her team at the Colney Centre are working towards an entirely paperless environment for both radiotherapy and chemotherapy.Although the main hospital still uses paper records, the radiotherapy department now has a paperless environment and VARiS MedOncology is helping them to integrate the chemotherapy department into this process.

“With MedOncology, you can set up a report based on a whole host of criteria - how many patients we have treated, with which drug, what type of cancer, how many patients each doctor has treated each month, how the patients are responding, whether we wasted any chemo treatments because the patient didn’t turn up, and so on. It’s a wonderful auditing tool. In addition, we know precisely where everybody is in the system at any time,” says Professor Barrett.

The Colney Centre now uses VARiS MedOncology for every stage of the patient’s chemotherapy process and the benefits include greater efficiency, greater patient throughput and reduced waiting times, all of which are helping the centre to meet government targets on waiting times.

“The protocols for treatment are all in the system,” adds Professor Barrett. “You do not have to work out every specific regimen, you just click on the appropriate fields and they work them out for you. VARiS
MedOncology will also feed information into the centre’s results database.” Walter Frei says VARiS MedOncology, which is a Microsoft Windows based product that is licensed based on the number of clinic workstations where it will be available, “helps to make Varian’s cancer treatments even faster and easier for patients and clinical staff alike.”
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VARiS MedOncology is a trademark of Varian Medical Systems