Major Radiotherapy IT Project Developed for Stockholm's Radiotherapy Hospitals

Advanced treatment planning and information management software has been selected as part of a major project to integrate all radiotherapy activities in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Aria information and image management software and Eclipse treatment planning software, both developed by Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, CA, USA), will be installed over the next year in an effort to unify the Karolinska University Hospital, South, and Danderyd Hospitals, which recently merged under the title of Karolinska University Hospital.

Hundreds of cancer patients are treated daily on 12 linear accelerators and brachytherapy afterloaders at the three sites. Most of the hospital network's treatment machines are Varian Clinac accelerators. The new Karolinska University Hospital currently deploys a range of treatment planning, information management, and verification software systems, all of which will be replaced by Varian's Aria and Eclipse systems over the coming year.

Aris Tilikidis, chief physicist at Karolinska University Hospital, explained, "An integrated system improves treatment quality by eliminating possible errors due to data transfer between different systems, resulting in more accurate treatments. Radiation therapy treatments have increased in volume and complexity in recent years and it is extremely important to be able to integrate activities effectively.”

According to Dr. Tilikidis, a single software system to manage the three networked hospitals will enable patients to be transferred seamlessly from one hospital to another. Moreover, modern sophisticated radiotherapy treatments such as IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy) and IGRT (image guided radiotherapy) benefit greatly from the use of common methods and systems across a network of hospitals. Aria is a comprehensive cancer therapy that allows medical and radiation oncologists to track adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.

Varian was chosen to fulfill this software integration project after a thorough tender process. "We analyzed all of the different companies and visited recommended reference sites and it soon became obvious to us that only the Eclipse/Aria system from Varian could offer the integration capabilities required by our hospitals,” added Dr. Tilikidis.

Sten Hornsleth, Varian's Scandinavian regional manager, said, "We are delighted that this major project will be served entirely by Varian's information technology (IT) network. This means that Varian is the only radiotherapy IT supplier to hospitals in Stockholm, just as we are already the only supplier to other Nordic capitals Helsinki and Copenhagen.”


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