N.C. Cancer Hospital
Newswise — CHAPEL HILL, NC – This fall UNC Health is implementing a new software called Oncology Clinical Pathways that will facilitate a common high quality, evidence-based care standard across the entire UNC Health system of hospitals in North Carolina, ensuring that each patient receives the most up-to-date course of recommended cancer treatment.
The software provides recommendations for cancer treatment based on the best available scientific evidence and expert consensus, and assists oncologists when selecting a treatment. The software also supports the process of ordering treatments through the hospital’s electronic systems by creating treatment summaries and required insurance documentation. UNC Health doctors will meet regularly with colleagues from other cancer centers, including Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, to review the scientific literature and decide which treatments should be in the software. If there is a discovery of a better form of treatment, experts from across the Philips network of oncologists quickly assess it and move it into the software ensuring that UNC’s oncologists across the state always have access to best treatment options.
“We are excited to implement this system, and as clinicians we are grateful for UNC’s substantial commitment and support for our cancer quality care initiatives, including this one,” said Ethan Basch, MD, physician-in-chief of the N.C. Cancer Hospital and director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program in the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Doctors will be able to monitor centrally what treatments patients are receiving, and use the software as a part of their robust quality assurance programs. Using these kinds of systems can also reduce the amount of time for insurance companies to approve treatments, because they know UNC’s doctors are basing treatment recommendations on the best available evidence.
The Oncology Clinical Pathways software will also match patients automatically with any open clinical trials across the UNC Health system, which allows physicians to know if there are options available to patients other than standard treatments. In addition, the software will provide robust analytic capacity, enabling longitudinal assessments of care variation across UNC Health, ensuring all patients receive the same excellence in care.
Oncology Clinical Pathways is currently being implemented at UNC Health locations and it expected to be up and running this fall. Learn more about cancer treatment options at UNC.
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About UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and N.C. Cancer Hospital
The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center is a cancer research and treatment center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Serving patients at the N.C. Cancer Hospital, UNC Lineberger is the only public comprehensive cancer center in the state of North Carolina. The N.C. Cancer Hospital is the flagship site for UNC Cancer Care and the clinical home of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, where we are exerting an unprecedented effort to make strides against cancer and the suffering it causes is fueled by collaboration across the population, basic and clinical sciences.
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