HealthManagement, Volume 9 - Issue 1, 2009
Authors
Andrew Hoole
Edwin Claridge
Informatics and Computing
Special Interest Group
(ICSIG)
The Institute of Physics
and Engineering in
Medicine (IPEM)
York, United Kingdom
The selection and integration of appropriateinformation systems is one of the challengesfacing department managers in theirquest to offer a high level of clinical care,coupled with efficiency, and good financialand clinical governance. The issues becomeparticularly difficult when ‘top down’ systems,such as EHR, HIS and PACS comeinto contention with established departmentalsystems. This article considers OncologyManagement Systems (OMS), whereissues of integration between departmentalsystems and corporate systems currentlyengender debate.
OMS offerings have developed from the real-time computer systems used in radiotherapy (RT) departments, mainly with linear accelerators, to control treatment delivery. Complex daily treatment fractionation is tracked through Record and Verify (R&V) modules that maintain a complete record of each radiation beam’s contribution to the overall dose.
OMS Components
R&V modules and machine verification aspects are specialist and unique RT features, now incorporated into OMS systems. These encompass other modules from medical history, to record tumour diagnosis and staging, scheduling, not only for patient preparation and therapy attendances, but also for activities in treatment preparation that do not involve patient attendance. Additionally, with modules for the organisation and delivery of chemotherapy regimes and RT protocols, concurrent treatments can be tracked. Clearly this OMS functionality now overlaps with some features found in ‘top-down’ Hospital Information Systems (HIS).
RT Processes Aid Planning
Patient pathways through oncology are complex, involving input from various professionals. Developments within OMS introduce the possibility of actively tracking ‘back-office’ tasks such as tumour delineation on planning images and the subsequent RT planning processes. Careful mapping of preparation processes and available staff skills makes it possible to devise ways in which the scheduling capabilities of an OMS can be used to more clearly define and allocate the associated tasks within the processes.
This precise definition and allocation of tasks can also improve the sense of ownership, accountability and control that staff feels. Such techniques also enable the audit of pathways. This kind of audit highlights areas of resource bottlenecks, enabling managers at all levels to address such issues by training or physical resource provision. The need to meet stringent waiting time targets requires the overall process to be intelligently controlled.
Other Advantages
Integration
To achieve good integration, OMS providers should be encouraged to provide solutions that both embrace newly developing technologies and integrate with HIS and other systems. This is most likely to be achieved by ensuring that systems support developing standards, for example, HL7 for general message passing, and the maturing RT components of the DICOM standard, for PACS integration, both encouraged by the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiatives for exchanging data between systems using agreed definitions.
Time and Space Management
Oncology management falls at the complex end of the spectrum of hospital activities. Work is largely outpatient oriented and both RT and chemo are likely to involve many treatment sessions. Scheduling is complex because slots in treatment bays and rooms are used so intensively. The treatment pathways are many; their modification as treatments, regimes and protocols progress, is quite common. When using an OMS database, a distinction between activities concerned with the provision of patient treatment and those intended to provide management statistics needs to be appreciated.
For costing/billing and process/revenue, allocation managers must choose between collecting large volumes of daily data from incomplete prescriptions, or lower volumes of summary data, which has been through more quality screening and deals with finished prescriptions. For monitoring the use of treatment rooms, the various waiting times and the techniques in use, the OMS is also a rich resource.
Dissemination of Information
A challenge for the oncology community is to make local data appropriately available across a broader spectrum in a manner that is not open to misinterpretation; uses could include audit and resource planning. Unfortunately the terminology used in oncology and OMS is not standardised and comparisons between centres are therefore difficult. The wide availability of PACS systems, themselves based on the DICOM standard and in some countries becoming integrated across the nation, make them a potential platform for achieving this wider dissemination of information.
The operational differences between radiology and oncology departments
make it difficult to envisage a real-time integration with OMS, but the
retrospective uploading of a completed RT episode summary DICOM data object
into PACS is a potential way in which this data may be “protected” for the
benefit of the patient across a broader geographical spectrum.
Data Security
Data protection is often viewed as ensuring that data does not fall into the wrong hands. Another important aspect is to ensure that the data held remains available for continued use, in the context of both current and future treatments. The centralised storage of data in local OMS facilitates this process. Note that statutory oncology data storage periods are usually greater than many OMS software life cycles, implying that evolutionary planning must include archive data.
Conclusion
An OMS is now a critical component in the day-to-day operation of oncology facilities and a potentially rich data resource for management to meet larger goals. Currently, the level of integration, for example, for the assimilation of OMS elements beyond R&V into HIS and/or PACS, is not completely developed. The standards for the definitions required for national and international data exchange have also not yet been agreed. It is necessary to consider these issues when purchasing an OMS solution and essential to engage in an active debate about future relationships between OMS, HIS and PACS.
