An overlooked aspect of McKesson Corp.'s acquisition of US Oncology is what the $2.16 billion deal announced last week means for iKnowMed, the US Oncology-owned and marketed cancer-care electronic health-record system that is reported to be used by more than 900 oncologists.
US Oncology physician Nicholas Vogelzang, chair and medical director of Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, said he expects McKesson to put some of its IT resources toward upgrading iKnowMed, which he described as having strong decision-support tools but workflow-slowing data-entry procedures.
Vogelzang said he sees the merger with McKesson as an opportunity to boost iKnowMed's operations and sales. He said the system, which US Oncology purchased in 2004, has "incredible analytic capacity." And although—according to Vogelzang—it's only one of US Oncology's 26 business lines, Roy Beveridge, US Oncology executive vice president and medical director, said he expects that iKnowMed will see growth after the McKesson acquisition.