New Orleans-based Ochsner Health is the first health system to integrate its EHR with an Epic application that aims to provide individualized cancer treatment.
As part of the program, Epic partners with Tempus, a biotech company that analyzes cancer cells at the molecular level.
"We've found that these EHR integrations significantly reduce the amount of time physicians spend ordering and reviewing our clinical tests and reports, and as a result spend more time with their patients, equipped with the data needed to make informed treatment decisions," said James Chen, MD, senior vice president of cancer informatics at Tempus, in an Aug. 29 Ochsner Health news release.
The technology will allow Ochsner physicians to order genomic tests to access patients' biomarkers to match them with precision therapies and clinical trials.
"Labs have traditionally sent genetic testing results to providers in PDFs that look nice but don't power precision medicine at the point of care," stated Alan Hutchison, vice president of population health and payer strategy at Epic. "The discrete genomic results that Tempus sends back to Ochsner flow directly to patients' charts where they're actionable, not trapped in a PDF report."
"Using discrete actionable data to create patient insights is one of Ochsner Information Services' guiding principles," added Amy Trainor, RN, vice president of clinical systems for Ochsner Health.