Varian Medical Systems Teams With Cogent Health Solutions to Offer Case Management Software for Cancer Survivorship

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Varian Medical Systems, Inc. today announced it is offering oncology treatment centers a way to provide cancer survivors proactive follow-up care to achieve a better post-treatment quality of life. Varian is teaming with Cogent Health Solutions to offer Cogent's Equicare CS (cancer survivorship) case management software with Varian's ARIA(TM) Oncology Information System for the management of cancer treatment centers.

"Earlier this year, the American Cancer Society reported that cancer death rates in the United States have decreased by 18.4% among men and 10.5% among women since the early 1990s," said Maureen Thompson, senior director of oncology information systems at Varian. "Equicare CS is a unique solution for ensuring that patients who have joined the growing ranks of cancer survivors get the help they need to cope with the health issues that often follow successful cancer treatment."

Cancer survivors typically require follow-up care for late effects of treatment, secondary cancers, and quality of life issues. They often require diagnostic testing, nutritional, and counseling services. The Equicare case management system is a web-based, patient-centric tool that can help cancer survivors, their caregivers, and their healthcare providers achieve better clinical compliance and improved patient outcomes following treatment for cancer.

The program helps doctors generate a care plan based on best practices and established guidelines, and creates a dynamic link between all the key stakeholders -- patients, caregivers, and physicians," said Len Grenier, president and CEO of Cogent Medical Systems. "It distributes essential information to the patient through a personalized portal on the Internet, empowering survivors to become more active in their ongoing recovery. A survivorship program with Equicare CS will allow cancer centers to continue providing world-class care and manage outcomes for years after a patient's initial treatment has concluded."

"Varian technology for advanced radiation therapy has been instrumental in the fight against cancer, significantly prolonging hundreds of thousands of cancer patients' lives over the years," said Dow Wilson, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business. "This agreement to provide our customers with access to Equicare CS is part of our ongoing commitment to the quality of survivorship."

About Cogent Health Solutions

Cogent Health Solutions is a developer of case management solutions for global healthcare markets, with a focus on disease management for health care providers, patients and their families. Cogent is focused on setting the new benchmark for patient management in cancer treatment facilities around the globe. For more information, visit http://www.cogenths.com/.

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, proton therapy, 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 X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 4,600 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 60 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com/.

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: Meryl Ginsberg, Varian Medical System (650) 424-6444, meryl.ginsberg@varian.com Mark Thomson, Cogent Health Solutions (604) 708-9075 x 106, mark.thomson@cogenths.com