by Phillip Hirschfelder | Jun 14, 2017 | En Español, Radiation Oncology Equipment
Antes de comprar un acelerador lineal de segunda mano, es importante identificar los tipos de tratamientos que ofrecerá a sus pacientes, tanto a corto como a largo plazo. Este gráfico le permite ver qué requisitos de hardware son generalmente necesarios para cada una de las diversas opciones de tratamiento. Hay excepciones a estos parámetros (por ejemplo, algunas instalaciones están haciendo SRS sin tasas de dosis más altas).
Read More ... by Phillip Hirschfelder | Jun 14, 2017 | Radiation Oncology Equipment
Before you purchase a pre-owned linear accelerator system, it is important to identify the types of treatments you will be offering to your patients, both in the short term and in the long term. This chart allows you to see what hardware requirements are generally necessary for each of the various treatment options. There are exceptions to these parameters (for example, some facilities are doing SRS without higher dose rates).
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by Michael Teague | Jun 8, 2017 | Radiation Oncology Equipment
Linear accelerators have two different components that allow for images of the patient to be made while the patient is on the linear accelerator:
1. MV Imaging Devices. These devices, also referred to as EPIDs (Electronic Portal Imaging Devices), produce an image of the patient by the use of the mega voltage (MV) beam of radiation that the linear accelerator emits to treat the tumor(s).
2. KV Imaging Devices. These devices produce clearer, x-ray images of the patient through the use of an x-ray tube that is mounted onto the linear accelerator.
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by Tommy Hughes | Apr 20, 2017 | Radiation Oncology Equipment
Linear accelerators have become increasingly more sophisticated over the last two decades. The advent of IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy), as well as CBCT (cone beam CT) and VMAT (volumetric arc therapy) means that more data is generated from the linear accelerator than ever before.
In order to keep all of the patient data organized, a Record and Verify System (R&V) should be used. An R&V system is simply a computer server and related software that organizes and stores all of the data that is fed into, or captured from, the linear accelerator and the related patient being treated.
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by Tommy Hughes | Feb 28, 2017 | Radiation Oncology Equipment, Recent Projects
The Project Management Team at Radiology Oncology Systems (known as R.O.S. for short) recently completed a major project involving installation of a refurbished Elekta Synergy linear accelerator system at a major public institution in Australia. Such an installation generally takes between eight to twelve weeks. In this case, ROS’s team provided an “expedited installation” and completed the work in just under four weeks.
Tommy Hughes, Sr. Manager, Field Operations at ROS, stated, “we received full acceptance to OEM standards by the facility’s physics & medical staff in under four weeks—this is a record for our company, and a big accomplishment for our team”.
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by Michael Teague | Feb 23, 2017 | Radiation Oncology Equipment
In 2013, a survey was conducted among medical physicists and published on the Global Medical Physics list server. The survey asked physicists which higher photon energy is preferred, primarily between 10MV, 12MV, 15MV and 18MV.
All linear accelerators manufactured today include the 6MV photon energy, which is the most widely used energy for performing IMRT. However, higher photon energy options exist, and the selection can often be confusing.
Who better to ask than the medical physics community? The results, we found, were surprising. Given the choice to alter the energy pairs on their linear accelerators, physicists chose 10MV as the preferred second energy.
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