Best Oncology EMR/EHRs

What is Oncology EMR Software?

Oncology EMR Software are electronic medical record softwares that are specifically catered towards Oncologists, documenting the treatments and follow-ups of patients going through cancer treatments. 

In 2024, It's become a fulcrum of cancer care for patients and oncologists alike, enhancing clinical decision making, strategic workflows and treatment plans that includes the administration and ordering of chemotherapy drugs, hematology, and cancer-specific templates and workflows, and features for cancer registry, reporting, and clinical trials.

Oncology medical softwares are also needed to correct procedural errors such as ensuring proper documentation, drug dosage and treatment plan adjustments and much more. 

Oncology EMR systems enable complex procedures such as PET scans, Mammograms, CT scans and more be stored remotely so that you and your patients can access critical data to help treatments a success.

Now to see what makes the best Oncology EMR/EHR Software for your practice: 

Key Features of Oncology EMR Software

Chemotherapy Management: Tracks chemotherapy orders, dosages, and schedules, ensuring safe administration and monitoring of patient reactions. 

• Treatment Plans and Protocols: Provides predefined templates for treatment plans based on oncology-specific protocols, making it easier for healthcare providers to implement and adjust cancer care. 
• Patient Progress Tracking: Monitors patient progress over time, including response to treatment, lab results, imaging, and pathology reports. 
• Clinical Decision Support: Offers alerts and guidelines tailored to oncology, ensuring the physician stays informed about treatment options, contraindications, and patient history. 
• Oncology-Specific Charting: Customizable templates for documenting patient encounters, including cancer diagnosis, staging, and clinical trial data. 
• Integration with Oncology Labs and Imaging: Seamless integration with lab results, radiology images, and other diagnostics crucial for cancer treatment. 
• Compliance and Reporting: Ensures adherence to oncology-related regulatory standards and helps generate reports for cancer registries and clinical trials. 
• Patient Portal: Provides patients with access to their medical records, treatment plans, appointment scheduling, and communication with healthcare providers.

Automation can improve three specific aspects of your practice: 

• It saves time, which means you and your staff are able to attend to more tasks/direct patient engagement each day
• Automation ensures more accuracy by checking human error – negligent or otherwise (thereby ensuring patient safety)
• It makes your treatment strategies/protocols safer by automatically adjusting and tailoring treatments to patients’ ailment profiles – by way of a preemptive accounting for emergencies (common with chemotherapy drugs). One example is compensating for renal adversities when devising radiation oncology plans

Manage Chemotherapy Better

But can technology really manage vital treatments better than the experts?

Well, the truth is it can.

Modern oncology EMR systems can draw patient information from your entire database and more (referential information from credible internet sources) to create customized treatment plans for every sign/symptom scenario. The only limiting factor here is data access. If the training data set is inadequate or flawed, the practice management software may not be able to discern any patterns that can be helpful in devising suitable courses of therapy.

In order to offset this risk, EMR software vendors strive to stay informed of developments in your niche to add relevant options/materials/filters as necessary. 

Oncology EHR software constantly analyzes data, patient/clinician feedback, and treatment responses. The ideal suites make these processes easy: an intuitive affair.

Also, remember that both you (as an oncologist) and your staff will need to attend to your patients. Nurses must also be able to add the details of their treatment actions in order to completely capture all minute details of the patient journey.

The EHR must allow for long-term data monitoring and capture for cancer patients, as the treatment path is rarely short-term (as in the case of some other acute emergencies).

In the world of healthcare, collaboration is key. It's crucial for all the different players to work together and communicate about a patient's care. So, it should be easy to share data with experts and ensure they have all the information they need to make the best decisions.

But sharing information goes beyond just patient care. It's also about powering research efforts to fight against cancer. Your patients' data can be incredibly valuable in this battle, but only if researchers can access it in a way that's actually helpful. That's where top-notch oncology EHR software comes in, ensuring seamless interoperability.

Taking care of cancer patients doesn't end when they leave the hospital. Your EMR software needs to support you in providing high-quality care post-treatment.

You can easily create a follow-up plan with a good oncology EHR suite and share it with others. Whether it's rehabilitation or follow-up procedures at different facilities, the system enables seamless collaboration and keeps everyone in the loop.

ONC-ATCB Certification

Although voluntary, this software certification ensures high IT standards, regulatory compliance and implementation specifications. For a field as intricate as oncology, this should be a prerequisite. So, when you’re out choosing a suitable EMR software for your practice, always check if your pick comes with this designation.

Based on our analyses, the following comprise the top five oncology EMR solutions on the market at present:

NextGen EMR For Oncology

NextGen EMR provides templates that enable oncologists to digitize their chemotherapy treatments. The software simplifies the process of prescribing and tracking prescriptions. This helps patients and their administering physicians manage their side effects better.

Oncology EHR By CureMD 

CureMD Oncology EHR optimizes cancer treatment workflows. Its automation capabilities minutely oversee lab work and adjust chemotherapy plans, avoiding patient noncompliance and potential adverse effects due to inadequate doctor supervision. After all, a timely notification system is central to avoiding undesired outcomes.

ARIA Oncology Information System By Varian 

The ARIA Oncology Information System by Varian Medical Systems provides a complete EHR and image management solution for your practice. This cross-functional platform enables clinical staff to effortlessly access patient data from diagnoses through post-treatment follow-up – all in one place.

The key features of the software include:

OncoEMR By Flatiron Health

OnccoEMR is top-rated for providing oncologists with analytics to measure care effectiveness. The software collaborates closely with Varian Medical Systems on the backend to ensure interoperability with ARIA. It further offers easy-to-use features for nurses in their daily work – while also helping doctors make better treatment decisions based on local, state, or national data/regulations. 

iKnowMed Generation 2 By McKesson

The iKnowMed Generation 2 electronic health records (EHR) software, developed by McKesson Specialty Health, is a robust and intuitive solution specifically designed for oncologists and hematologists. The cloud-based platform supports all oncology-specific requirements and features tools such as chemotherapy order management, aiming to improve the quality and efficiency of cancer treatment across all care settings.

It was created in close collaboration with oncologists to ensure it delivers the right patient information at the right time. This system allows hospital staff to store patient information and manage treatment recommendations. Furthermore, it's certified by the ONC-ATCB, making it compliant with healthcare regulations.