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In spite of low vendor performance scores, few providers are looking to replace their current oncology systems in the near future.

Oncology routinely crosses between the inpatient and outpatient venues more often than nearly all other specialties. These operational crossovers create immense difficulty in building a product that can serve the needs of the clinician in both hospital and clinic environments.

The recently released KLAS report The Oncology IT Balancing Act: Integration vs. Functionality found that-even though oncology is a tough technology market due to operational crossovers, complex protocols and the difference in requirements between medical and radiation oncology-system replacements are rare and come primarily as a result of consolidated practices. Switching to a new solution is difficult due to the investment expense, integration costs and workflows that are built from the implementation up. Best-of-breed vendors claim the lion's share of this market with few providers planning to replace their current oncology system in the near future, despite low vendor performance scores.

Healthcare information technology ( HIT ) vendor energy seems primarily focused on the medical, rather than radiation, oncology market. Providers observe that some oncology vendors seem less interested in functionality than in integrating medical and radiation oncology or the enterprise clinical system. This focus may result from vendors stretching to achieve product certification for meaningful use in relation to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

"The oncology market has been ignored by enterprise software vendors for the most part," stated Monique Rasband author of the report. "Oncology seems to be on the roadmap for most vendors, but few have made much progress and their functionality doesn't seem to be meant for use as a full oncology platform." Epic appears to be the closest enterprise system to delivering an oncology solution with Cerner , Eclipsys , GE Healthcare , MEDITECH and Siemens Healthcare all offering some level of oncology functionality at various levels of reported capability. In addition, they have limited user-bases.

As meaningful use requirements and deadlines loom ever closer, providers need oncology solutions that will integrate better with the enterprise clinical environment as well as with other software and equipment used in the oncology environment. Healthcare providers from all oncology levels wonder when the next wave of advancement will hit the market and how to prepare for the appropriate action they should take when that wave comes.

In The Oncology IT Balancing Act: Integration vs. Functionality report the number one ranked product is Elekta MOSIAQ with an overall score of 77.8 out of 100. IntrinsiQ IntelliDose (77.1) and Varian ARIA (71.1) were the second and third ranked solutions, respectively. Altos Solutions OncoEMR, BMSi ONCOCHART, Epic Beacon and US Oncology iKnowMed were also included in the report.

To learn more about the oncology technology market segment, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of participating vendors, The Oncology IT Balancing Act: Integration vs. Functionality report is available to healthcare providers online for a significant discount off the standard retail price. To purchase the full report, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports.

Source: KLAS