Global Oncology Informatics Market – Benefits to Caregivers, Payers, and Researchers

 An increasing demand from clinicians for the electronic collection of cancer-related data has led to the electronic collection of data that can efficiently facilitate personalized care for patients and catalyze real-time clinical research studies.

The importance of EHR (for electronic collection of data) has been recognized by organizations, such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). In 2010, ASCO released the final draft of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) criteria for the oncology EHR certification for the EHR vendors.

Under oncology informatics, the products are highlighted to cover the complete treatment process. Information is collated from different medical specialties, such as surgery, chemotherapy, pathology, and radiotherapy. There are various forms of specialist oncology information systems aimed at identifying common processing across tumor streams.

Following are the several information systems included in oncology informatics. These systems are majorly used for patient management and data recording purposes.

·         Oncology EMR: These systems are often compatible with a wide range of image types such as CT scans, PET scans, mammograms, ultrasounds, MRIs, and other scans.

·         Oncology information systems (OIS): These systems are offered by specialist suppliers in the market and are often associated with other types of oncology technology, such as linear accelerators (LINACs).

·         Oncology clinical care information systems (OCCIS): These systems offer enhanced control over all aspects of interface design, data flow, and workflow.

According to the market intelligence published by BIS Research, the global oncology informatics market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 7.03% during the forecast period from 2019 to 2025. With increasing incidences of cancer, the burden on clinicians to effectively manage oncology-related data to ensure enhanced patient outcomes.

. Furthermore, in recent years, organizations such as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have reduced reimbursement rates and procedure time in a clinical setting. 

This further necessitates the selection of an integrated health record system. For instance, in 2013, CMS implemented changes in payment policies, which resulted in an overall 15% reduction in rates of radiation oncology services. These changes comprised a 7% change in treatment times for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) procedure codes.

Further, oncology informatics has several benefits for care providers, payers, and researchers. For instance, it offers in detail aggregation of patient-related information, such as plan of treatment, its status, and patient's response to it. For caregivers, it offers storage of drug toxicity and clinical trial information at one centralized location, and for payers, it offers assistance in designing reimbursement strategies. Lastly, for researchers, it streamlines  tasks such as data retrieval, analysis, and prediction of probable outcomes.