South San Francisco, Calif.– June 5, 2008 – Onmark, the leading national group purchasing organization (GPO) for community-based practices and a McKesson Specialty company, has created a powerful new physician-focused portal that offers a complete set of clinical tools designed to empower practices to streamline their business and enhance patient care. These tools were developed by the tenured clinical teams of Onmark and National Oncology Alliance (NOA), a GPO acquired in 2006 by McKesson Specialty. The tools available through our enhanced website are yet another step toward achieving our goal to offer a total solution to community practices,” said Mike Cunningham, Pharm.D., vice president and general manager of Onmark. “We also continue to help members save money on their pharmaceutical purchases by expanding our leading contract portfolio, which now includes Wyeth for Neumega®, a thrombopoietic human growth factor used in patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy.”
The new tools available through www.onmarkservices.com include:
- Treatment Guidelines, a set of 48 evidence-based treatment standards supported by the latest scientific literature and approved by nationally recognized experts. These guidelines complement Onmark’s Efficacy and Side-Effect Comparison tables, which allow for easy comparison of major clinical trial results for regimens within the guidelines.
- Patient Education Handouts, a set of nearly 300 educational monographs used by healthcare providers to teach patients about specific chemotherapy and supportive care medications, and general symptom management topics.
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) toolkit, a guide to the safe handling of hazardous drugs for both personnel and patients. The NIOSH toolkit complements Onmark’s distance learning program, "Preparation Techniques for Hazardous Drugs," which helps community-based practices provide a safer workplace for employees and ensure proper aseptic handling of prepared products for patients’ safety.
- Nursing Policy and Procedure Manual, a customizable manual that covers topics such as chemotherapy administration, infection control, patient education and advance directives.
These tools join Onmark’s current suite of online business and clinical resources designed exclusively for community-based practices, including Onmark Regimen Profiler. This Web-based application provides financial and clinical information for hundreds of commonly used treatment regimens as well as downloadable patient-friendly financial responsibility reports. Regimen Profiler is currently used by over 350 practices.
“By integrating the expertise of NOA and Onmark into a single website, community-based physicians now have a portal offering the most robust GPO clinical resources available to support enhanced patient outcomes,” said Kim Bergstrom, chief clinical officer of McKesson Specialty. “We are excited to provide Onmark members with unrivaled clinical information, services and technology that will help them build efficient practices and deliver high-quality patient care.”
About Onmark
Onmark, a McKesson Specialty company, is the leading national group purchasing organization (GPO) for community-based practices. One of the largest GPOs in the community-based setting, Onmark has more than 2,660 members representing more than 4,400 physicians and over $8 billion in annual drug purchases. As a part of McKesson Corporation and through its strategic relationships with pharmaceutical companies and industry experts, Onmark provides its members with the lowest pricing available through OTN, access to a full portfolio of competitive contracts for pharmaceutical products and medical/surgical supplies, practice management resources, clinical tools and educational programs. For information about the products, services and programs available to Onmark members, visit www.onmarkservices.com.
About McKesson and McKesson Specialty
McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 18th on the Fortune 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes and improving the quality and safety of patient care. McKesson is the longest-operating company in healthcare today, marking its 175th anniversary this year. Over the course of its history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. The McKesson Specialty business unit, which includes OTN and Onmark, delivers services that manufacturers, payors and providers need to ensure specialty pharmaceutical products, coordinated reimbursement and clinical services are available to patients with complex diseases. For more information, visit www.mckesson.com.
Contact:
Stacie Byars, WeissComm Partners
415-946-1072
sdbyars@wcpglobal.com
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