Skyscape Brings Leading Oncology References to Medical Professionals via Their Handheld Devices

Business Wire,  June 9, 2003  

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Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

HUDSON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2003

PDA Content for Cancer Care Specialists Including the AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook and Calculator Enables Quick, Efficient Information at the Point-of-Care

Skyscape(R), Inc. (www.skyscape.com), the leading provider of enterprise-wide mobile medical and nursing reference solutions, today announced that it now provides cancer care specialists with trusted references for their PDAs. The three leading oncology references are now available for medical professionals to use on their handheld devices or personal digital assistants (PDAs) as a result of two newly inked partnerships. And for the first time, the most widely-used cancer staging system from the American Joint Committee on Cancer is available in an easy-to-use, mobile format integrated with other valuable tools, such as a staging calculator and several indices.

In a new partnership with Jones and Bartlett, Skyscape has made both the Physician's Cancer Chemotherapy Drug Manual and Oncology Nursing Drug Handbook available on PDAs. In an expanded partnership with Springer-Verlag, an internationally renowned scientific publisher and Bertelsmann division, Skyscape has made the AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook, Sixth Edition, prepared by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), available to medical professionals on their PDAs.

The AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook is considered the essential reference for oncologists, pathologists, surgeons, cancer registrars and other medical professionals to ensure that all those caring for cancer patients will be trained in the language of cancer staging. According to the American Cancer Society, staging is the process of finding out how far the cancer has spread. This is a vital step in determining treatment choices and it also gives the practitioners a clearer idea of the outlook for recovery. The TNM classification is the system used most often and provides three key pieces of information:

-- T describes the size of the tumor, and whether the cancer has

spread to nearby tissues and organs.

-- N describes how far the cancer has spread to nearby lymph

nodes.

-- M shows whether the cancer has spread (metastasized) to other

organs of the body.

The AJCC-TNM(TM), as the handheld version is titled, brings together all currently available information on staging of cancer at various anatomic sites and incorporates newly acquired knowledge on the etiology and pathology of cancer. The Sixth Edition includes major revisions to the chapters on breast cancer and melanoma as well as important changes in sites such as thyroid, liver, colon and kidney. For the first time, the full TNM classification is available in this easy-to-use, mobile format along with other critical tools, including:

-- Staging Calculator--The Staging Calculator is a vital tool for

busy physicians, allowing them to enter the TNM variables and

have the stage of the patient's cancer calculated instantly.

Physicians can stage patients on-the-go or consult the Stage

Grouping table to review the data. Skyscape's patented

technology enables doctors to smARTlink(TM), or toggle,

between them as needed. This showcases the power and

functionality of the PDAs for medical use as this type of

information is too complex to commit to memory.

-- Survival Curve Index--This index provides physicians with

instant information on five-year survival rates for different

cancer sites. This important data, which is relayed to

patients and is used to determine treatment as well as for

access to clinical trials, is organized into one comprehensive

index in the PDA version.

-- ICD Code Index--The International Classification of Disease

codes are used by medical professionals for insurance,

reporting and record keeping. An index of the latest ICD codes

facilitates quick searching and organization. This will help

physicians decrease time spent on administrative tasks so they

can spend more time with their patients.

According to the AJCC, whose sponsoring member organizations include the American Cancer Society and the Centers for Disease Control, physicians are required to use the new TNM classification for all cancer diagnoses made as of January 1, 2003. This classification system is found in the AJCC Cancer Staging Handbook, Sixth Edition. All of the TNM staging information included in the Sixth Edition is uniform between the AJCC and the International Union Against Cancer (UICC).

"Having access to such comprehensive information on my PDA is helpful for me, particularly when discussing a new diagnosis of cancer with my patients," said David Carbone, MD, PhD, Vanderbilt-Ingram Comprehensive Cancer Center. "When I am with patients, I can bring up the pertinent information with diagrams and images right on my PDA screen and use it to explain things to them. I have found that this gives my patients a better understanding of why we are recommending certain tests or treatments for their disease at such a critical time."