PHOENIX, Ariz. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Oncologists at Phoenix Children’s Hospital say nausea and vomiting disturbs families most when their kids are getting chemotherapy. After one particularly distressing instance, a doctor reached out to the technology department, teaming up to get the right anti-nausea drugs to kids.
A team of doctors, IT experts, and pharmacists at Phoenix Children’s Hospital wanted to make chemo less horrible for kids. The new chemotherapy induced nausea vomiting, or CINV, dashboard is making that happen.
“It’s real-time actionable electronic data that is not entered by a research coordinator, that is just a byproduct of the care that you’re giving,” said Vinay Vaidya, MD, Chief Medical Officer, IT Services at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Doctors now have information on the best antiemetics for specific chemo drugs at their fingertips, every morning.
Lexa Walsh, MD, MSPH, a Pediatric Oncologist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital said, “There’s a group of us who reviews it and makes sure that the right combination of drugs is ordered, and I’ve noticed a huge difference, much more rare now that patients are struggling with nausea and vomiting.”
Nurses ask patients to report their nausea on a scale, which is also recorded in the dashboard.
Melissa Rees, a clinical pharmacist, said, “It helps us up front to make sure that we’re prescribing it adequately, but then on the back end, it also helps us to see how our preventative measures are actually helping.”
Doctor Walsh says families may have access to the dashboard someday, creating a full team of people helping kids not get sick while they’re getting well.
Doctor Walsh says Phoenix Children’s is sharing the CINV dashboard idea and its early results with other hospitals. It also now is collecting a lot more data on chemo drugs and anti-emetics which is another benefit.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Wendy Chioji, Field Producer; Roque Correa, Editor; Bruce Maniscalco, Videographer.
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