Irish cancer centre modeled on remote IT design

Source:  Healthcare IT News.com ( www.imakenews.com/ )
Date: 29 May, 2007
Written by Chip Means, Associate Editor

DUBLIN - A new Dublin-based cancer centre will provide Ireland's population with access to state-of-the-art oncology information technology such as remote data management and high-end radiography services.

Beacon Hospital Cancer Centre is the newest international clinic operated by United States-based University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Mary Harney, Ireland's minister for health and children, officially opened the Cancer Centre on 14 May.  The cancer centre features radiography and data solutions included in UPMC's IT model. "We adopt that same model when we do any center outside of Western Pennsylvania," said Deb Salava, director of IT for UPMC Cancer Centers International.

That model includes, among other things, a remote data management system that allows Pittsburgh-based physicists to view and share information collected at Beacon. "It's really an oncology-specific electronic medical record," Salava said.

An intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) system allows clinicians at Beacon to accurately monitor a tumor in three dimensions. The beam can be controlled and altered to allow for the best monitoring, and helps avoid inflicting surrounding tissue with radiation, said Dublin-based Michael Costelloe, managing director of UPMC Cancer Centers International.

"The scan can be done in Ireland and then the associated data is sent to Pittsburgh, and that's where the sophisticated treatment plan is done, and then sent back to Ireland," Costelloe said. This hub-and-satellite model is used with all of UPMC's remote locations.  "We follow the lead of the clinical people so we're basing (the systems) on what's needed clinically," said Salava. Roughly 95 percent of the centre's activity is in outpatient care.

"By linking the Beacon Hospital Cancer Centre with our network of UPMC Cancer Centers, we are able to provide cost-effective and technologically advanced radiation therapy locally to the residents of Ireland's capital and largest city," Jeffrey Shogan, MD, director of business services and chief business officer at UPMC Cancer Centers, said in a press release.

UPMC also operates the Whitfield Cancer Centre in Waterford, Ireland, and a transplant hospital in Italy, and manages emergency medicine services in Qatar.