The safeguarding of patient privacy is only one of  many data management issues confronting medicine today. In a field like radiation oncology, which relies on multiple programs to deliver  technology-based patient care, the handling of electronic patient information is a particularly complex challenge.  

At UC Davis, radiation oncology treatments rely on multiple software and operating systems, including but not limited to treatment planning, patient information and radiation therapy image storage. Our department installed TeraMedica's Evercore Oncology Information Manager to help bring together information from different operating systems, devices and equipment. The soon-to-be installed IMPAC MOSAIQ electronic medical record system will work in conjunction with Evercore to ensure the highest quality of data management and quality assurance. The diversity of our image-based patients' records and the fact that their treatments are image guided requires an efficient means for our treatment team to obtain virtual access to image data. With the new systems, we also hope to develop a discovery database that will significantly contribute to our cancer research.