Perspective from the Oncology Community

“We are excited for our practice’s electronic health record system to begin to work with CancerLinQ to improve the quality of patient care. This collaboration will enable us to readily and securely share health data, ultimately allowing us to learn from more patients’ experiences. This will benefit both our patients and our practice.”   

- Keith A. Thompson, MD, Montgomery Cancer Center, CancerLinQ Practice and Varian Subscriber

ALEXANDRIA, Va.— The number of electronic health record (EHR) systems joining with CancerLinQ to facilitate information sharing continues to grow. CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), announced today that Varian’s ARIA® Oncology Information System (OIS) is the next Electronic Health Record (EHR) System to be certified by CancerLinQ® after meeting criteria for interoperability and data standardization. This collaboration aims to dismantle barriers to information sharing and streamline access to CancerLinQ for oncology practices using Varian ARIA® OIS.  

“We are excited to work with a company who sees not only the value, but the need for interoperability across EHR systems to improve cancer care,” said CancerLinQ LLC Chief Executive Officer Cory Wiegert. “This certification will enable connectivity between CancerLinQ and Varian’s ARIA platform and will allow more oncologists and patients to experience the benefits from a community of learning.”

ARIA is a comprehensive electronic medical record and image management system that aggregates patient data into an organized, oncology-specific medical chart with functional components for managing clinical, administrative and financial operations for medical, radiation and surgical oncology. The ARIA system is designed to provide a seamless flow of information for managing the patient's entire journey—from diagnosis through follow-up.

“One big challenge to achieving our vision of a world without fear of cancer, will be moving beyond the current fragmented cancer care landscape toward a more integrated approach,” said Sukhveer Singh, Vice President for Cancer Care Management at Varian. “Helping to remove “silos” between cancer specialists, primary care physicians, affiliated healthcare providers and patients is a major challenge that we currently face. Enabling integrated, multidisciplinary cancer care teams to easily exchange health information electronically between various care providers and the systems, can help doctors and other members of the healthcare team provide higher-quality, better-managed, and safer care for patients.”

CancerLinQ® is a health information technology platform working to improve the quality of cancer care for patients by aggregating and analyzing real-world cancer data. The CancerLinQ® Certified EHR program recognizes systems that meet specific requirements for interoperability and cancer data standardization. To become a CancerLinQ® Certified EHR and maintain this status, an EHR system must do the following, in addition to fulfilling other requirements:

• Support the creation and maintenance of health records including, but not limited to, individually identifiable oncology and/or hematology patient information;
• Maintain a leading industry standard for the recording of precise, structured, and standardized clinical data;
• Meet certain federal standards for EHR technology, interoperability, privacy, and safety;
• Work to achieve the continuous, secure transfer of data to the CancerLinQ® system from patients associated with practices that both participate in CancerLinQ and use the EHR; and
• Participate in efforts among stakeholders in the cancer community to drive improvement of interoperability, establish core data elements, and support efforts to standardize and harmonize data approaches.

For more information on how to participate or apply for EHR certification, please visit CancerLinQ.org.

CancerLinQ® is supported in part through Conquer Cancer®, The ASCO foundation, whose generous donors have helped make the system possible. Major supporters include Amgen; Astellas; AstraZeneca; Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Cancer Treatment Centers of America®; Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation; Genentech BioOncology™; HELSINN; Janssen Oncology; Lilly; Raj Mantena, RPh; Novartis Oncology; Pfizer Oncology; Thomas G. Roberts, Jr., MD and Susan M. DaSilva; and Susan G. Komen®.

CancerLinQ® and CancerLinQ Discovery® are projects of CancerLinQ LLC.

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