PALO ALTO, Calif. /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) now offers its clinical consulting services in Europe and Australasia, as well as North America. These services help radiation and medical oncology departments to streamline processes and go paperless and/or filmless, using Varian's ARIA® Oncology Information System (ARIA). As a result, by operating with greater efficiency, departments may more easily introduce advanced treatments and reduce the time and cost of providing the best possible patient care.

The demand for consulting has grown significantly worldwide in recent years. Advanced treatment technologies, such as volumetric arc therapy, image-guided radiotherapy, and stereotactic radiotherapy, have become available at a time when the global economic recession adds pressure to cancer care providers everywhere to reduce costs and justify spending. Customers are asking for help to utilize the many capabilities of the ARIA system more fully in radiation and medical oncology, to improve clinic performance and the patient experience. "Many centers are only skimming the surface of what ARIA can do for them as a clinical and information management system. For years, we having been helping U.S. customers take advantage of ARIA's extraordinary flexibility to reach their defined clinical and business goals. Now we are using that experience combined with strong local support teams to provide customized services in Europe, Australia and Asia," said Kolleen Kennedy, vice president & general manager of worldwide customer support services for Varian.

Varian offers global clinical implementation services in the following areas:
* Filmless and/or paperless implementation
* Initiation of IMRT, IGRT, RapidArc or stereotactic radiosurgery programs
* Migration to Varian technology from other systems

Going filmless and paperless

Demand is strong in the U.S. for consulting services to implement electronic medical records and processes that do not depend on paper charts or films from imaging studies. Varian did five times more paperless implementation consulting in 2009 than in the year before. In the first six months of 2010, the paperless implementation business grew another 180 percent. Demand for this service is expected to follow a similar upward path in Europe and Australasia. In the future, Varian will offer a special program for helping customers use ARIA to achieve "meaningful use" of electronic medical records so they can qualify for payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

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