Varian Medical Systems to Exhibit a New User-Friendly Release of the ARIA® Oncology Information System for Managing the Comprehensive Cancer Center

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE: VAR), a world leader in cancer therapy technology, is exhibiting a new release of its ARIA® Oncology Information System, designed to improve ease of use and interoperability with the company's Eclipse™ treatment planning software.  The new software is being shown at the 2012 annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) here this week (Booth 5737).  

ARIA 11 has also been certified so that customers can use it to demonstrate Stage 1 'meaningful use' of an electronic medical record, in order to qualify for HITECH Act funding from the federal government. The new release of ARIA can be deployed in a virtualized environment, meaning that the application can be installed on servers in a central location, and then accessed using a variety of remote devices.  The advantages to this approach include greater flexibility, scalability, and productivity, as well as lower IT costs.

ARIA Version 11

"ARIA 11 has been designed so that doctors, nurses, radiation therapists, physicists, dosimetrists, and administrators can personalize their home screen to easily access what they need, when they need it, at the level of detail specific to their roles," said Corey Zankowski, vice president of product management.   

The ARIA release is built upon a new user home screen that is more tightly integrated with Varian's Eclipse™ treatment planning software, enabling users to access both applications from a single workspace.  Clinics can configure their system to guide department personnel through their daily tasks by automatically activating the next step in the process once a task has been completed.  "The software was designed to streamline clinical, financial, and administrative processes in cancer care, making radiation and medical oncology departments more efficient and cost-effective," Zankowski said. 

"Enhancing a clinic's ability to write safety checks into their workflows was a primary design consideration for ARIA 11," Zankowski added.  Using ARIA 11, clinics can define checklists and attach them to any task as a quality assurance measure, and require that these be completed before a treatment can progress. 

Virtualization Solutions

"Using virtualization technology, ARIA 11 enables clinical personnel to function from wherever they happen to be--at any Windows® workstation in the department, from their Macs at home, from laptops on the road, or from tablets at the patient bedside," said Chuck Martin, senior IT product marketing manager at Varian.

Martin points out that clinics using server and application virtualization methods can avoid buying expensive servers that take up space, use a lot of power, and require extensive IT resources to manage and to service. "Varian is committed to helping customers improve the efficiency and quality of radiation and medical oncology treatment by leveraging the latest and best-of-breed solutions in information technology.  Enabling virtualization advances that commitment," he added.

The ARIA oncology information system is a comprehensive software solution that supports the oncology clinic. It combines an oncology-specific patient electronic medical record (EMR) with functional components for managing clinical, administrative and financial operations. ARIA is now in use at nearly 3,000 treatment centers around the world, and it was recently chosen by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) for use across its multiple cancer treatment sites.

"With ARIA 11, Varian is fulfilling its ongoing commitment to providing cancer centers with the most comprehensive management tools for operating a modern, multidisciplinary treatment program," said Dow Wilson, Varian's chief operating officer.

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies high-energy X-ray devices for cargo screening and non-destructive testing applications. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 5,900 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Meryl Ginsberg, (650) 424-6444
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SOURCE Varian Medical Systems