Varian launches 'cloud community' to encourage information exchange among oncologists

As the conversation shifts from collecting Big Data to what to do with it, Varian Medical Systems ($VAR) is focusing on efficient data sharing. The company hopes users of its just-launched OncoPeer platform will benefit from oncologists' collective intelligence by leveraging other practitioners' knowledge to the benefit of their own patients.

Varian says members of the cloud community will be able to start threaded discussions with open or closed groups, share and comment on uploaded files, sort information by key word and monitor discussions for trending key words.

"We're excited about how the early adopters are already using the resource to help one another," said Sarah Gyatso, manager of the OncoPeer cloud community in a statement. "Recently a community member posted a question to the nearly 600 users we had signed up so far, asking for tips when creating radiotherapy treatment plans for prostate cancer patients with bilateral hip replacements. The user received a detailed answer from an experienced member, who offered specific and actionable advice. This was a perfect example of the peer-to-peer knowledge exchange that OncoPeer is intended to support."

The company says its role will be to provide technical support for the site and monitor communications for adherence to guidelines, such as exclusion of protected health information that could violate privacy regs. Varian will not use it for company communications.

"We intend this to be a place for our customers to connect and share," said Varian vice president Sukhveer Singh, in a statement. "Within the OncoPeer community, Varian customers will be able to set up their own groups to collaborate within or across institutions. We anticipate that users will find different ways to use it. Medical oncologists configuring the Aria oncology information system to support their clinical processes might reach out to colleagues who have already accomplished this for tips and advice. A medical physicist might ask peers a question pertaining to quality assurance processes, or share specific procedures utilized in his or her clinic."

The platform's initial rollout will occur in North America, the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, with other regions are expected to receive it beginning in mid-June, according to the company's announcement.

Varian also makes the Velocity clinical intelligence platform for gleaning information from the data spread across different systems and points in time. The company says it can map imaging and treatment information and integrate it into a comprehensive dashboard for clinical decision-making.

The launch of OncoPeer is more proof that oncologists are increasingly relying on the Internet to connect themselves to their peers and gain additional insights via the cloud.

For example, the Maastro radiology clinic in the Netherlands has developed free cancer prediction models to aid in clinical decision making. Anyone with access to the Internet can use them to estimate their patients' chance of survival based on the input of a handful of key variables.

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