An estimated 72,000 healthcare professionals gathered at the Dubai World Trade Centre Jan. 23-26 for the 2012 Arab Health Congress and Exhibition. The meeting also provided the framework for the 2nd Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Cancer Therapy Conference.
During the exhibition, Elekta demonstrated advanced solutions ranging from conventional radiation therapy with Elekta Compact™* to stereotactic neurosurgery with Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™, products that provide clinicians with the tools to save and improve the lives of individuals with cancer. In addition, for the first time at Arab Health, Elekta presented advanced brachytherapy solutions.
The theme of the Elekta exhibit was “Experience the Elekta Difference,” which emphasizes the company’s commitment to increasing the user’s clinical confidence by simplifying the variables in treatment planning, patient setup, verification and delivery.
“Elekta was honored to attend Arab Health once again as a Gold Sponsor for the 2nd Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Cancer Therapy Conference,” says Nabil Elias Romanos, Elekta’s Vice President, Eastern Europe and Middle East. “We enjoyed heavy booth traffic and were gratified by the interest in our entire product portfolio, including our brachytherapy solutions. Many of the discussions with hospital administrators and clinicians revolved around key partnerships in the regions, supported by education, training and clinical collaboration.”
In 2012, Elekta will increase its presence in the region, after having already expanded its Dubai office to better serve customers and partners.
Read more at: http://www.elekta.com/healthcare_international_press_release_20071332.php.
*Elekta Compact™ is not available for sale or distribution in all regions. Please contact your local Elekta representative or authorized distributor for further details.
Elekta's recognition program for cancer registrars
Elekta is accepting nominations for the 2012 Cancer Registrar of the Year. Don’t miss this opportunity to demonstrate yourself or a colleague’s excellence and be honored by Elekta during the National Cancer Registrars Association’s 38th Annual Education Conference. The deadline for nominations is Friday, March 16, 2012.
Announced during Elekta’s 2012 Cancer Registry Users Meeting, Wednesday, April 18 in Washington D.C., the program honors outstanding registrars who have made valuable contributions to the success of their registry. It also recognizes those who further expand their contributions to the community and broader organizations.
To nominate yourself or a colleague, visit www.elekta.com/corporate_international_registrar_of_the_year.php. Nominees must be Elekta software customers.
Konstantin Gaievskiy, Head representative of Тoshiba Мedical Systems Europe B.V.; Tetyana Shcheglovskaya, Head of RT Department; Carlos Sandin, Clinical Solutions Sales Support Manager, Elekta; Dmitro S. Mechev, Head of Radiology Department, National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education of Ukraine.
The Rinat Akhmetov (Development of Ukraine) Foundation took bold strides in 2011 to advance patient care by acquiring a comprehensive range of cancer management technology to equip the radiotherapy department at Rivne Regional Oncologic Dispensary in Ukraine. The Foundation chose Elekta to supply a comprehensive radiotherapy treatment solution, which includes an advanced digital treatment system, oncology information system and treatment planning systems.
“The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation needed to address a critical shortage of modern cancer treatment technology in eight provinces in Western Ukraine,” says Tetyana, Shcheglovskaya M.D., Head of the Radiotherapy Department at Rivne Regional Oncologic Dispensary. “For the Rivne center, it considered a combination of factors, including technical sophistication, price and company reputation among several tenders, ultimately selecting Elekta to provide this equipment.”
With its significantly strengthened cancer management capacity, the 240-bed Rivne clinic will serve as a magnet for patient care in a wide region, encompassing the cities of Lutsk, Ternopl and Zhitomyr. In addition, Rivne Regional Oncologic Dispensary will serve patients in Chernobyl, approximately 175 miles to the east. Chernobyl is the site of the 1986 nuclear power plant accident.
In its first three months, Rivne Regional Oncologic Dispensary has increased its daily radiotherapy patient volume to more than 50 and has enjoyed some early clinical successes.
“The results have been very good,” Dr. Shcheglovskaya reports. “For example, tumor shrinkage has been more than 90 percent in clinical cases involving tumor of the maxillary sinus. We have been able to treat a wide range of patient ages, including individuals with retinoblastoma.”
Read more at: http://www.elekta.com/healthcare_international_press_release_20071330.php.
Opened in August 2011, Rivne Regional Oncologic Dispensary’s radiation therapy department treats 50 patients per day
Approval of indications may vary between different countries. Additional regulatory clearances may be required in some markets. Photos courtesy of Rivne Regional Oncologic Dispensary.
Symmetry helps radiation oncologists at Riverside & University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center avoid excess dose to healthy tissues by isolating mobile tumors
In treatments of only the first handful of patients with lung or liver tumors, Riverside & University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center (Newport News, Va.) clinicians have demonstrated the dramatic benefit that Elekta’s Symmetry™ 4D image guidance technology can provide for patients whose tumors move with their breathing. Symmetry essentially yields a more distinct picture of the tumor, without the blurring associated with breathing motion.
By having a clearer picture of the tumor position and its motion, physicians have been able to improve their targeting of tumors, thereby avoiding having to treat a larger margin of healthy tissue around the lesion. A Symmetry scan is acquired just before treatment to ensure that the patient is correctly positioned, and to visualize tumor movement.
“Symmetry scans give us clearer information about the movement of the tumor, allowing us to increase the safety of treating our patients by decreasing the dose to healthy tissues, while hopefully providing a better clinical outcome,” according to Riverside medical physicist Kelly Spencer.
Tumor motion in sharper focus
Before they began using the Symmetry feature in Elekta’s XVI package of IGRT tools, Riverside clinicians were using sophisticated XVI 3D cone beam CT (VolumeView™ CBCT) imaging technology integrated with their Elekta Synergy® S to image tumors. These pre-treatment scans provide physicians with added confidence in the margins that they have planned. Although seeing a target with IGRT technology such as VolumeView has been a key clinical improvement, the motion still created a blur that encompassed the tumor’s range of motion.
“For our current protocol, we would create an ITV [internal target volume] to cover the blur we see on the VolumeView,” Spencer says. “We began using Symmetry on a couple of patients with lower lung lesions near the diaphragm where we would expect tumor motion to be an issue. We were actually quite mesmerized by the images Symmetry provided. We could clearly see the actual motion of the delineated tumor with respect to the patient’s breathing.”
The same Symmetry benefit applied to a recent patient with a liver tumor situated near the diaphragm. In this case, clinicians inferred tumor motion by observing the movement of the liver with the patient’s breathing.
“We wanted to use Symmetry to see how the superior border of the liver moved, and what we observed was that it did not move simply superior to inferior – there was almost a rolling pattern to the liver motion,” Spencer recalls. “We knew that the liver didn’t necessarily move symmetrically on CBCT scans, but it was harder to appreciate due to motion artifact. This movement probably varies between patients, so that is an excellent reason to use Symmetry to evaluate this motion on a case-by-case basis.”
Read more at: http://www.elekta.com/healthcare_international_press_release_20071329.php.
*Approval of indications may vary between different countries. Additional regulatory clearances may be required in some markets.
2012 Future of Radiation Medicine
Thursday, March 15, 2012
1 – 6:30 p.m. • 6:30 – 8 p.m. Dinner
Four Seasons Hotel • Baltimore, MD
The 2012 Future of Radiation Medicine Symposium brings together the world’s leading authorities in radiation medicine to discuss the latest trends in radiotherapy. Radiation safety considerations in the clinic will be addressed, followed by a Q&A with presenters. To view a complete agenda with topics and speakers, or to register, please click here.
Who should attend?
The one-day symposium is designed for the entire cancer care team where you can earn AMA PR Category 1, CAMPEP, ASRT and MDCB educational credits.
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Radiation oncologists
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Medical oncologists
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Medical physicists
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Oncology nurses
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Radiation therapists
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Neurosurgeons
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Executives and administrators
Do your plans include demonstrating meaningful use and qualifying for HITECH Act incentive money? If so, don’t miss Elekta’s complimentary January webinars.
HITECH 101 (Monday, January 23, 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific)
Will include updated information about proving meaningful use that will have a direct impact on every practice that intends to pursue incentive funds. This session is geared for customers in the early stages of planning for meaningful use and the HITECH Act. This session will be facilitated by Sima Aziz, Business Line Manager, Medical Oncology and HITECH. Click Here to Register
HITECH 201 (Thursday, January 26, 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific)
Providers can demonstrate meaningful use by attestation if they begin in either 2011 or 2012 – and more than 14,000 have registered to do so. Our goal is to give you the information you need to qualify for the first-year incentive money whether you begin in this year or next. The session will be facilitated by Natalie Hoad-Reddick, Product Manager for General Charting and Medical Oncology. Click Here to Register
NEW! HITECH 301 (Friday, January 27, 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific)
Details coming soon! The session will be facilitated by Faye Ann MacDonald, Senior Product Manager for General Charting and Medical Oncology. Click Here to Register
MOSAIQ® customers are encouraged to visit SupportPlus to learn more about the HITECH Act, meaningful use certification and how MOSAIQ has been modified to address meaningful use criteria. Information may also be found at www.elekta.com/hitech.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Accelerates Cancer Care with Monaco Planning Software from Elekta
Clinicians cut VMAT planning times, aim to increase access to rapid radiotherapy for more patients
Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) delivery techniques have dramatically reduced treatment times for thousands of patients. An obstacle to offering this technique to more patients is the time it takes to create a VMAT plan. Physicians at St. James’s University Hospital – the first in the United Kingdom to use Monaco® VMAT clinically – have been able to significantly reduce VMAT planning times, increasing the potential to offer this advanced therapy to greater numbers of patients.
“Our referral rate for radiation therapy is expanding by over seven percent annually,” says St. James’s head of radiotherapy physics Vivian Cosgrove, Ph.D. “We see VMAT as a key way to manage that growth. If we can plan complex radiotherapy quickly and deliver treatment more efficiently with VMAT, then we can treat more patients and derive more benefit from our existing fleet of treatment machines.”
Elekta VMAT is an advanced radiation therapy technique that delivers treatment in one or more continuous high-speed arcs around the patient, enabling the radiation dose to precisely conform to a tumor by modulating the radiation beam’s intensity in multiple small volumes.
The key to rapidly developing Elekta VMAT plans lies in understanding the principles of efficiently producing traditional IMRT plans with step-and-shoot (i.e., non-dynamic) delivery. Medical physics staff at St. James’s have used Monaco since January 2011 to plan head-and-neck IMRT cases.
“Monaco has transformed our IMRT service,” Dr. Cosgrove notes. “After contouring, we can complete a complex head-and-neck plan in two to three hours. This is two to three times quicker than other planning systems we have used. Since we introduced Monaco clinically, we have been able to significantly increase the number of patients receiving intensity modulated treatment: over 260 patients in 2011 and a target to increase this further in 2012.”
That number includes many patients who have received VMAT planned with Monaco, which St. James’s clinicians began performing in August 2011 on one of its 12 Elekta digital accelerators.
VMAT delivery of head-and-neck cases takes 6.5 minutes, half the time of a seven-field step-and-shoot delivery, he says. Read more at: http://www.elekta.com/healthcare_international_press_release_20071328.php.
Elekta's MOSAIQ Oncology Information System
In the coming months, join us in Columbus, Ohio and Portland, Oregon for an interactive and engaging afternoon with Elekta’s MOSAIQ® Oncology Information System. We’ll share what’s new, what’s coming, and provide information to perfect your practice, refine your workflow and supply the support you need in this dynamic business. To view the agenda, please click here: MOSAIQ Symposia.
February 16, 2012 • Columbus, Ohio
Renaissance Columbus Downtown
April 5, 2012 • Portland, Oregon
The Westin Portland
Target audience: Intermediate to advanced MOSAIQ users; members of your administrative leadership, healthcare industry consultants and thought leaders, members of the care and treatment teams.
*Registration is complimentary, but may be limited. To register, click here. ASRT and MDCB credits will be applied for.
Register online at elekta.com/symposium
Elekta Software customers in North America are invited to attend our complimentary Treatment Planning Symposia held January 27 in Chicago and February 28 in Philadelphia. The conference is an opportunity for treatment planning users to share their experiences, while acquiring new techniques. Topics include:
- Quality assurance system for normal tissue contouring
- The utilization of advanced IMRT techniques for large fields
- Tips and tricks to optimize planning and workflow processes with XiO® and Monaco®
We also will discuss current and future release plans. To register and view an agenda, click here: Treatment Planning Symposia.
Friday, January 27, 2012 • Chicago, Illinois
Westin Lombard Yorktown Center
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Doubletree Philadelphia Center City
*Program includes breakfast, light lunch, MDCB and CAMPEP CEUs through an educational grant by Elekta.
Among oncology software products, customers ranked Elekta first for its MOSAIQ® Oncology Information System (OIS) in a survey by KLAS, an independent research firm. The recently released 2011 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services* report showed that MOSAIQ scored 79.1 out of 100 and 88 percent of customers indicated they would buy again. The report, which puts MOSAIQ at the top for 2011, is a summary of performance data collected over the past 12 months and ranks the top overall vendors, as well as leaders in each market segment.
The award will be presented to Elekta at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition in February 2012 in Las Vegas. Elekta experts, available at booth #1455 will be providing MOSAIQ demonstrations during the exhibition, highlighting the OIS’s unparalleled open systems and interface connectivity to the widest range of treatment planning, treatment delivery, LIS, brachytherapy systems and hospital information systems.
“We are enormously gratified that our customer respondents in the KLAS survey recognized the value of MOSAIQ for managing their patients’ care,” says Todd Powell, Executive Vice President, Elekta Software. “A continually evolving solution since 1992, MOSAIQ OIS was developed not only to streamline complex oncology workflows, but also to enable clinics to integrate vendor-neutral hardware and software as their needs change.”
More than 1,400 U.S. cancer treatment centers trust MOSAIQ to manage their patient information and provide unmatched connectivity to enterprise systems.
*2011 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services,” December, 2011. © 2011 KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. www.KLASresearch.com
Read more at: http://www.elekta.com/healthcare_international_press_release_20071327.php.
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