Dana-Farber, Philips Partner to Expand Clinical Pathways Tool

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute recently announced that it is partnering with Royal Philips in order to establish and provide improved clinical pathways in cancer care.

Experts at Dana-Farber have developed a clinical pathways tool in order to deliver the latest data and treatment options to oncologists to provide patients with the best care possible. “Cancer care is just getting more complex, as a clinician has to factor in genomic data and think about all these new drug approvals that are coming fast and furious,” said David Jackman, MD, medical director for clinical pathways at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in an interview with HealthITAnalytics.com.

The clinical pathways tool acts as a data-driven map to help identify and navigate the best treatment options available for each cancer type at a particular stage. The pathways developed by Dana-Farber will be implemented through the Philips IntelliSpace Oncology Platform, a cloud-based system that integrates radiology, pathology, genomics, and electronic health record (EHR) data.

“Cancer medicine is changing rapidly, and physicians are tasked with interpreting massive amounts of new information generated from publications and clinical trials. Through this collaboration with Philips, we can help them choose the best possible treatment for patients based on specific information and the deep experience of our clinicians,” said Laurie Glimcher, MD, president and CEO of Dana-Farber, in a statement.

The idea behind developing the pathways tool, according to Jackman, was to determine the best care for a patient in a given situation and try to capture all of that expertise and circulate that knowledge throughout the health system. That way, no matter where a patient is seen, they will receive the same answer about their care instead of a variety of suggestions. Through this program, the organization has been able to capture and share best practices for over 30 different diseases within medical and radiation oncology.

Given the many changes and updates to cancer care, Dana-Farber experts update the guidelines regularly. In addition to providing support in shared-decision making, the tool also helps physicians understand which clinical trials, if any, may be appropriate for each patient.

The collaboration with Dana-Farber and Philips will allow the clinical pathways tool to be made available to oncologists in this network and beyond, which will in turn enable providers to deliver innovative, evidence-based, and patient-centric care.