Oncology decision support app deployed

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust is deploying a decision support app called ONCOassist.

The CE-approved software system from Portable Medical Technology will be the main oncology decision support system used within the trust. 

The ONCOassist platform has been available as an enterprise system since August last year. Trusts and institutions can integrate their guidelines and protocols and make them available in an easy to access format across multiple mobile operating systems including iOS, Android and Windows.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, based in Merseyside, has been working closely with the ONCOassist team over the past year to develop the application. 

The trust’s head of IM&T Thomas Poulter said that having it available in clinics and on the wards will save clinicians’ time.

“The oncology nurses and clinicians will have access to all of the key oncology decision support information and tools they need. For example, our nurses often need to reference protocols or treatment algorithms when delivering chemotherapy treatment. ONCOassist makes it easy to do this,” he said.

Jo Upton, skin cancer advanced nurse practitioner at Clatterbridge, explained that important decisions relating to the management of treatment side-effects and the patient experience of their treatment are fast becoming central to the cancer nurse’s role, especially in the outpatient setting.

“It is essential that vital information to aid decision-making in practice is quick and easy to access. I have found that the ONCOassist app provides easy access to formulas and decision-support information in my day-to-day job,” she said.