Oncology information systems do not receive strong ratings from clinical cancer specialists who use them. In a newly published report from market research firm KLAS of Orem, UT, cancer healthcare providers stated that oncology IT vendors seem less interested in functionality than in integrating medical and radiation oncology, or with the enterprise clinical system.
The report states that best-of-breed vendors currently dominate the market, which is far from reaching maturity and customer saturation. Healthcare providers have been slow to adopt oncology IT systems, due in part to the complexity of cancer treatment. The software is complex yet must be flexible enough to accommodate complex protocols and ever-changing needs.
Oncology routinely crosses between inpatient and outpatient venues more often than nearly all other specialties. These operational crossovers create immense difficulty in building a product that can serve the needs of the clinician in both hospital and clinic environments, according to the report.
"Many oncologists are still using paper-based medical records even with the availability of an oncology IT system," the report's author, Monique Rasband, a director of research, told AuntMinnie.com. "Oncologists by nature are about patient care, and many feel that although these systems will benefit in the long term, it adds steps and length to their already long days. It is also a painful process to make the switch and learn a new system," she said.
"The oncology market has been ignored by enterprise software vendors for the most part," Rasband stated. "Oncology seems to be on the roadmap for most vendors, but few have made much progress, and their functionality doesn't seem to be meant for use as a full oncology platform." Epic Systems of Verona, WI, was identified by the report as having the closest enterprise system to delivering an oncology solution.
KLAS reported that few of the providers interviewed for the report who had oncology IT systems planned to replace their system, in spite of the low performance scores they attributed to their vendors. In total, the report evaluated eight best-of-breed vendor software systems.
By Cynthia E. Keen
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
October 4, 2010
Related Reading
KLAS: EMR sales nearly doubled in 2009, September 27, 2010
KLAS: RIS purchases are priorities for hospitals, September 9, 2010
Report: U.S. hospitals lag in CPOE adoption, June 22, 2010
Hospitals report different experiences with oncology software, May 7, 2010
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