NEW ORLEANS (press release) – Ochsner Health, through its Precision Medicine Program, has incorporated Epic’s Orders and Results Anywhere integration with its Genomics module. Through Epic’s partnership with Tempus, which analyzes cancer cells to understand a patient’s disease at the molecular level, Ochsner physicians can now seamlessly order tests and access discrete biomarkers within the patient’s electronic health record (EHR) to offer highly personalized cancer treatment options.
“This integration greatly enriches the precision care we provide to patients with cancer,” said Marc Matrana, MD, MSc, FACP, Medical Director of Precision Medicine at Ochsner Health. “Through efficient, streamlined access to discrete genomics data, we can determine a patient’s unique cancer and tailor treatment for the best possible outcome.”
With the click of a button, Ochsner physicians can order a genomic test to identify a patient’s actionable genomic variants and therapeutic options, including matched clinical trials. This information flows directly into Epic, providing a single view of the patient’s genomic and clinical information.
The new integration will significantly reduce the amount of time clinicians spend ordering such tests and reviewing results, enabling them to make near real-time, data-driven decisions.
“We’ve found that these EHR integrations significantly reduce the amount of time physicians spend ordering and reviewing our clinical tests and reports, and as a result spend more time with their patients, equipped with the data needed to make informed treatment decisions,” said James L. Chen, MD, Senior Vice President of Cancer Informatics at Tempus. “We are thrilled to work with the forward-thinking team at Ochsner to apply this innovative approach in improving outcomes for their patients.”
Epic is the most widely used comprehensive health record, and Ochsner relies on it to support a single integrated system across its 47 hospitals and hundreds of clinics across the Gulf South. Clinicians at any hospital on the Epic system can view or access other EHRs, which improves clinician communication and patient care.
“Labs have traditionally sent genetic testing results to providers in PDFs that look nice but don’t power precision medicine at the point of care,” said Alan Hutchison, Vice President at Epic. “The discrete genomic results that Tempus sends back to Ochsner flow directly to patients’ charts where they’re actionable, not trapped in a PDF report.”
For more than 70 years, Ochsner has been dedicated to cancer research and new cancer treatment development, bringing innovations to the fight against cancer with more clinical trials than anywhere else in the region. With a holistic, patient centric approach, Ochsner provides comprehensive care to patients from diagnosis through recovery, including for the most complex and difficult to treat cancers.
“Using discrete actionable data to create patient insights is one of Ochsner Information Services’ guiding principles and this technology will allow us to bring results to our providers in an actionable format to quickly make an impact on patient care. This is another example of how we prioritize ‘patients first’ initiatives,” said Amy Trainor, VP of Clinical Systems, Ochsner Health.