I keep traveling to trade shows and this past week I was at ASTRO in San Antonio, Texas. It really was an exciting show.
I met Dr. John Adler, the inventor of the CyberKnife and saw a video of
his Zap X unit, which is really cool technology you will be hearing more about. Very space age. There is one installation in Arizona and I am hoping for the chance to visit it.
Accuray was there in force and I heard an interesting CyberKnife presentation.
I also took a booth tour to learn about the Halcyon system from Varian, and that is also a very exciting machine. The new MLC (multi-leaf collimator) can deliver beam in a very precise way and the machine is made up of a number of components which will make servicing it easier.
I find oncologists to be very engaged and very down to earth. And right now, the technology is at the very cutting edge.
It is interesting that Varian also talked about its new
flash technology, which was not previously available because the hardware wouldn't support the beam strength, as it does now.
Proton therapy was everywhere and I saw some interesting new technology, including a new
treatment planning MR system from Siemens and
new software from RaySearch that uses machine learning to allow for better treatment outcomes.
We've covered all of this last week in our news and here are a few links to the stories, but I just wanted to give you my idea of some highlights.
See you next week.
Phil is a member of AHRA, HFMA, AAMI and the Cryogenic Society of America. He has contributed to a number of magazines and journals and has addressed trade groups.
Phil's proudest achievement is that he has been happily married to his wife Barbara since 1989, who helped him found DOTmed in 1998.
Kevin Brown
Elekta missed you!
November 03, 2018 03:19
Hi Phil
Sorry that we missed you at the Elekta booth. We are the second largest worldwide supplier of radiotherapy and the only company with a breakthrough high field MR Linac. I would have thought that this technology would be of great interest to your radiology readers. Hopefully we can touch base soon.
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