Varian Medical Systems Acquires and Intends to Commercialize UK National Health Service’s Unique Capacity Planning Software Tool | Varian

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Varian Medical Systems Acquires and Intends to Commercialize UK National Health Service’s Unique Capacity Planning Software Tool

London, England, January 22nd 2014 – Varian Medical Systems, the world leader in radiation oncology equipment and software, has signed an agreement with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to acquire an NHS-developed cancer care planning tool called the Radiation oncology Planning Online Resource Tool (R-PORT). Varian intends to offer R-PORT to oncology departments globally.

R-PORT has been used in the NHS in recent years to help control costs and manage electronic data. Under the terms of the agreement, Varian Medical Systems will add this tool to its extensive oncology services portfolio and develop and enhance it for worldwide use.

“R-PORT has helped oncology providers within the NHS network to model change management before incurring major costs,” says Steve Laws, Varian’s EMEA regional director of software sales. “It also measures the results and costs of change management for reporting purposes. It is highly synergistic with Varian’s existing software portfolio and builds on Varian’s mission to be a ‘partner for life’ – supporting our customers to deliver world class cancer care.”

“At a time of rising costs, uncertainty concerning reimbursement and increasing numbers of cancer patients, healthcare providers worldwide are seeking solutions to help them deliver better patient care, reduce patient wait times, increase physician and staff productivity, reduce costs of operations, and basically do more with less,” says Scott Brouse, Varian’s vice president of Worldwide Site Solutions. “This is a tool that can help Varian support our customers in the fight against cancer.”

In 2006, in response to the demands of patients and their advocates for better and timelier cancer care, the NHS developed R-PORT as an oncology-specific capacity planning and management software tool. The R-PORT software was tested outside of the UK and was found useful in reducing the impact on patient waiting times through its simulation and resource scenario planning features.

“R-PORT has been very helpful in improving efficiencies and controlling costs,” says Jane Whittome, who heads the NHS Improving Quality’s programme on patient experience and who commissioned the original development of R-PORT. “As the continued development of R-PORT by the NHS for the NHS is not an immediate priority, we believe Varian offers the best opportunity for the enhancement of this tool and for making it accessible as part of its professional services to oncology departments globally.” 

Editorial contact: Neil Madle, Varian Medical Systems, +44 7786 526068
 

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, digital detectors, and image processing workstations 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 6,400 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.