Ochsner integrates precision drugs capabilities inside Epic EHR
Ochsner Well being this week introduced a brand new integration that can make it simpler for its physicians to ship precision drugs inside their present scientific workflows.
WHY IT MATTERS
The New Orleans-based well being system says it is the primary within the nation to include Epic’s Orders and Outcomes Wherever integration with its genomics module – a transfer that can scale back the period of time clinicians spend ordering genomic assessments and reviewing outcomes.
By Epic’s partnership with Tempus, which develops precision oncology know-how, Ochsner physicians can now order assessments and entry discrete biomarkers throughout the affected person’s digital well being file, serving to them supply extra personalised most cancers therapy choices.
Physicians at Ochsner’s 47 hospitals and a whole lot of clinics can order genomic assessments with a click on to establish actionable genomic variants and therapeutic choices, together with matched scientific trials. The information flows immediately into Epic – providing a unified view of the affected person’s genomic and scientific data.
“Labs have historically despatched genetic testing outcomes to suppliers in PDFs that look good however do not energy precision drugs on the level of care,” mentioned Alan Hutchison, vice chairman at Epic, in an announcement. “The discrete genomic outcomes that Tempus sends again to Ochsner movement on to sufferers’ charts the place they’re actionable, not trapped in a PDF report.”
“Utilizing discrete actionable information to create affected person insights is considered one of Ochsner Data Companies’ guiding rules and this know-how will permit us to deliver outcomes to our suppliers in an actionable format to rapidly make an affect on affected person care. That is one other instance of how we prioritize ‘sufferers first’ initiatives,” added Amy Trainor, Ochsner’s VP of scientific methods.
THE LARGER TREND
Limitations round EHRs and their skill to assist volumes of discrete genomic information have been a big challenge in recent years, and have arguably held again wider adoption of precision drugs therapy methods.
Even a decade ago, consultants have been warning that “EHRs should not designed to retailer giant blocks of information that don’t require fast entry; nor are they at the moment able to integrating genomics scientific choice assist.”
As Dr. John Halamka said in 2017: “Our EHRs should not precisely pleasant for clinicians they usually have not accomplished job of taking issues like biomarkers, genomic interpretations and choice assist and turning them into motion.”
However with precision drugs lastly reaching a essential mass, more and more built-in into the best way physicians ship care, more and more health systems are looking to retool IT infrastructure and clinical workflows to accommodate these personalised therapy plans.
ON THE RECORD
“We have discovered that these EHR integrations considerably scale back the period of time physicians spend ordering and reviewing our scientific assessments and studies, and in consequence spend extra time with their sufferers, geared up with the info wanted to make knowledgeable therapy selections,” mentioned Dr. James L. Chen, senior VP of most cancers informatics at Tempus.
“This integration drastically enriches the precision care we offer to sufferers with most cancers,” added Dr. Marc Matrana, medical director of precision drugs at Ochsner Well being. “By environment friendly, streamlined entry to discrete genomics information, we will decide a affected person’s distinctive most cancers and tailor therapy for the absolute best end result.”
