PALO ALTO, Calif. /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) ranked first in overall performance among oncology information system vendors in a 2011 performance report released last month by KLAS, a research firm that specializes in monitoring and reporting on the performance of healthcare technology vendors.(1) Varian's ARIA® software, which is designed to manage a range of clinical, administrative, and financial activities in the multidisciplinary cancer treatment setting, rose by eight percentage points above its 2010 score, capturing the top spot for 2011.

"Varian is proud to have ranked number one in KLAS's annual survey for three out of four years," said Dow Wilson, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business.(2) "We were particularly gratified this year to see that 94 percent of the customers surveyed would buy ARIA again, and 96 percent see ARIA as part of their long-term plans."

According to KLAS's Oncology IS 2011 report, Varian was the only vendor of the three analyzed to show upward momentum by registering a positive one-year trend. Competitors showed no significant changes in ranking levels. KLAS researchers interviewed 50 Varian customers at 45 distinct treatment center sites to generate the data used in the report.
"Varian has improved across the board, and customers are taking notice," said Monique Rasband, author of the report. "Customers like the end-to-end workflow capability for oncology and the fact that integration is being built into the software upgrades. ARIA's ease of use is also a highlight."

Some of the indicators for which Varian achieved top scores included: quality of implementation, product response time (tied for highest score), supports integration goals, executive involvement, overall communication, and forecasted overall satisfaction.

"We're gratified to receive top marks in this objective survey," said Wilson. "As a company committed to providing cancer treatment professionals with oncology-specific EMR technology to help them manage their practices, our customers' perceptions of our performance is of the utmost importance to us."

Varian will be showcasing the latest release of the ARIA program in the company's booth at the annual meeting of the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) taking place next week in Miami Beach, Florida, featuring more personalization to the user, easy-to-follow task-driven workflows, greater automation, and a single clinical management system that accesses both ARIA and Varian's Eclipse™ treatment planning system from a single unified dashboard.

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