At ASCO meeting, McKesson showcases US Oncology capabilities

In something of a tour de force, McKesson Specialty Health (The Woodlands, TX), and its US Oncology Research Network, are represented in 90 studies made public by presentations, posters or publications at the Am. Soc. of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (Chicago, May 31-June 4). Dr. Steve Jones, chief science officer of US Oncology Research, says that since the inception of the research program in 1999, over 55,000 patients have been involved in trials of oncology products, and 46 drugs have been commercialized. Key Phase III trials, BOLERO 3 (breast cancer), IMPACT (pancreatic) and RTOG (non-small cell lung cancer) are among those being presented this year.

Lisa Holland, VP of US Oncology Research, notes that the network of community oncologists brought together by the program represents a significant value for pharma researchers. Due to the size and connectivity of our network, we are fortunate to be able to identify patients for the smaller, targeted trials, as well as continue to accrue on larger trials across the network,” she says. Typically, pharma companies come to US Oncology with proposed studies, although it is also possible that individual investigators who belong to the network can approach pharma companies for support through US Oncology.

McKesson Specialty Health is also using the ASCO meeting to showcase the next generation of its IKnowMed electronic-health record (EHR) system, which provides office recordkeeping, clinical decision support and medication management. Access to mobile devices is one of the enhancements of the new version. EHR systems generally are being looked on as a way to better manage therapy, including documentation of health outcomes.