Onmark Launches Integrated Quality(TM) Program to Help Physicians Succeed With National Quality I...( SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO Calif. Jan. 3...),Health

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Onmark, a leading national group purchasing organization (GPO) for community-based practices and a McKesson Specialty company, today announced the launch of its Integrated Quality (IQ) Program with the goal of helping community-based oncology practices improve the quality of patient care. The Onmark IQ(TM) Program, which is facilitated through OTN's industry-leading Lynx Mobile(TM) technology platform, helps practices track internal regimen utilization, compare their clinical treatment patterns to national standards such as American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines, and benchmark quality outcomes against peer practices. As a result, practices can identify opportunities to enhance the quality of care they provide to patients and improve the overall efficiency of their practice.

"There is a growing effort to standardize and improve the quality of patient care delivery in the United States through the development of measurable quality indicators. We believe the Onmark IQ program will help oncology practices succeed in a quality-driven healthcare environment by making it easy to benchmark clinical data to both national standards and to other practices," said Kim Bergstrom, Pharm.D., Chief Clinical Officer of OTN and clinical advisor to Onmark. "This innovative program will also help oncology practices prepare for pay-for-performance programs by helping them develop quality treatment strategies and demonstrate adherence to guidelines."

Physicians participating in the IQ Program will respond to brief, web-based surveys designed to measure clinical treatment patterns and determine why they made specific treatment decisions. After completed surveys are submitted to Onmark, the participating practice will receive a credit for OTN expenditures. Surveys are HIPAA compliant and do not contain recognizable patient identifiers. Collected data wi
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