Epic Beacon is the dedicated oncology and hematology module within the Epic Systems Electronic Health Record (EHR) suite. It is purpose-built to manage the complexity of cancer care, from initial diagnosis and staging through treatment, follow-up, and survivorship. As a fully integrated module, Beacon provides a centralized platform for the entire oncology care team—including oncologists, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians, and schedulers—to access and document patient data in real-time.
Key Features and Capabilities:
- Chemotherapy Regimen Management: Allows clinicians to create, customize, and manage complex chemotherapy and radiation treatment plans based on standardized, evidence-based protocols (e.g., NCCN guidelines).
- Integrated Decision Support: Provides real-time clinical decision support, including alerts for potential drug interactions, dosage validations, and deviations from established protocols, significantly enhancing patient safety.
- Medication Administration Record (MAR) & Safety: Fully integrated with Epic's pharmacy and electronic MAR products, supporting barcode-based medication administration and lifetime cumulative dose checks to prevent medication errors.
- Cancer Staging and Registry Reporting: Facilitates the documentation of cancer staging and automatically helps submit required data to national cancer registries, such as the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC).
- Clinical Trials Management: Streamlines the process of tracking patient enrollment and adherence in ongoing research studies, and simplifies data capture for clinical research.
- Unified Patient Record: Seamlessly integrates with all other Epic modules (e.g., EpicCare Ambulatory, Willow Pharmacy, Radiant Radiology, Beaker Lab) to provide a complete, unified patient record.
Target Users and Use Cases:
Epic Beacon is primarily used by large and medium-sized health systems, hospitals, and specialized cancer centers that have adopted the core Epic EHR platform. Its main use case is the end-to-end management of oncology workflows, ensuring patient safety during high-risk procedures like chemotherapy administration, and improving care coordination across multidisciplinary teams. It is essential for organizations focused on maintaining high standards of clinical accuracy and regulatory compliance in cancer care.