Oncology Information System

A system that can manage patient treatment schedules, treatment plans, treatment delivery, treatment summaries, and results is inevitable. An oncology information system (OIS) can be used to manage these data. This OIS will encompass the information exchange between radiation therapy departments and the overall healthcare enterprise. Particle therapy departments utilize many information systems. For medical safety purposes, patient demographic information and treatment data should be shared among these systems. The OIS must be connected with other hospital information systems (HISs, e.g., electronic medical records). All HISs should share radiation treatment information. This information may be transmitted transparently by each device. Evaluating and improving the quality of radiation therapy requires complete information on cancer stage and treatment results. Hospital-based registries are a key tool. The development of information systems requires standardization for rapid development and ease of integration. Standardization also facilitates preparation and reduces the test time. For standardization there are some standards (such as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine-Radiotherapy (DICOM-RT) and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE)). By using these standards we can easily share the patient data. And this interoperability will lead to improved medical safety and professional effectiveness.