New oncology system goes live at Arden Cancer Centre

A new oncology-specific, image-enabled electronic medical record system has gone live in the Arden Cancer Centre, part of the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.

The new system from oncology system specialists, IMPAC, has been designed to improve overall workflow and practice management and to enhance care for cancer patients at the centre.

IMPAC says the system’s electronic medical record is an active clinical tool that includes computerised physician order entry, customisable assessments, document and image management, and features designed specifically to handle oncology work.

A company spokesperson told E-Health Insider: “IMPAC combines a complete image enabled oncology medical chart, capable of streaming advanced therapies regardless of equipment, with fundamental patient administration, workflow features and flexible reporting features. The result is a system that actually increases staff productivity yet still promotes quality patient care.

“It has been designed to streamline chemotherapy ordering and administration by allowing clinicians to plan treatment, process orders, and track patient progress from a single ‘Clinician Worksheet’ and IMPAC ‘Care Plans’ provide an efficient means of promoting and tracking compliance and ensuring consistency of treatment delivery.”

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire’s clinical oncologist, Dr Clive Irwin, said: “Patients at the Arden Centre rely on clinicians for the best possible care. We have selected this system, designed specifically for the context we work in, to provide vital patient and drug data and clinical decision support necessary for us to select the best medicines and treatments for each individual to ensure patient safety.”

Arden Cancer Centre’s superintendent radiographer, Bill Kelly, added: “The new system has many benefits for both the patient and staff alike. We will have all of the patient’s information, in one single system including x-rays and this will be available for the consultant, radiographer, pharmacist or anyone else involved in the patient’s care to instantly access the patient’s medical record.”

The system will be supported by First DataBank Europe’s (FDBE) drug knowledge base, which will help clinicians reduce potential medication errors at the point of prescribing using warnings and allows the trust to keep an audit of clinicians’ responses to the warnings.

The Arden Cancer Centre will also now be able to obtain an integrated real-time link to all the clinics in the cancer network, as far a field as Redditch, Warwick, Rugby, Solihull and Nuneaton as well as across the whole of the trust.