A more productive staff – a simpler workflow – that’s what was on Sasa Mutic’s mind as he visited the Philips booth during the 2007 American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) meeting.
For Sasa Mutic and fellow attendees, finding ways to successfully and efficiently treat a growing number of cancer patients was imperative.
Integration is the key
The recent evolution to a more unified work environment in radiation oncology has become very apparent to Sasa. He noted, “A few years ago there was a strict distinction between imaging and treatment planning. Today more and more people who are doing treatment planning are participating in imaging. Having powerful tools that are common to both systems will go a long way toward improved productivity.”
It's so much easier
On display at the booth was the new Philips radiation oncology workstation - custom built to significantly improve operational efficiency. Approximately three to five times faster than previous platforms, the Pinnacle³ System 810 dramatically increases performance for even the most intensive treatment planning functions.
“Better performance can increase our throughput and we may be able to treat more patients,” said Sasa. “Better performance will ease our daily operations because a large part of our time is spent waiting for the computer to calculate and optimize. And if plans can be optimized faster, more time can be spent fine-tuning them, which increases the quality of each plan. With the 810 we expect to become more efficient and more productive. Compared to other vendors here at AAPM, Philips appears to have made the most significant improvement in hardware with the introduction of the Pinnacle³ System 810.”
No speed bumps to slow you down
But power in treatment planning is just the beginning. The real edge comes with a set of compatible tools between imaging and treatment planning – the ability to start image processing on the scanner and then easily carry it over to the treatment planning workstation.
Sasa explained, “With Philips Tumor LOC we can do contouring directly on our scanner. We can create certain structures, setup our beams and export it all to Pinnacle³. It also exports nicely to other planning systems, but it’s important for us to have similar, compatible tools between the imaging side and the treatment planning side. When there’s a familiar set of tools on both sides, I don’t have to train my staff to learn two systems. The similarity of products means it’s much easier to achieve a decent workflow.”
Patients and staff benefit
As Mr. Mutic completed his tour of the booth, he again spoke of the importance of simplifying workflow. “I see great benefit in having a staff that’s confident in the tools they have and the equipment they’re using. The less time a therapist has to spend working with the software, the more time they have to devote to the patient – ultimately that’s the bottom line.”
“We’ve been Philips CT users for a long time and feel they provide the best imaging quality available. Therefore acquiring their treatment planning solutions became the natural next step. We believe it’s been the right one.”
As evident by the crowd at the Philips booth, other AAPM attendees may agree.
[Published: 2007-08-08]