Another aspect that distinguishes Mayo's approach is that each room can be run independently with unrelated procedures occurring simultaneously, Dr. Callstrom says.

"This Hybrid Procedural Suite has been an important part of our conception of how we take our practice to the next level," says Anil Nicholas Kurup, M.D., an abdominal and interventional radiologist. "The suite serves as a platform to really elevate the care of patients with complex cancers. We have taken off the harness and removed any limitations we previously had regarding how best to both visualize the target of our procedure, and apply the tools and the techniques we typically use outside of procedures. Some steps are done well with one type of imaging modality; whereas, other parts of these complex procedures are done well with another imaging modality."


To help achieve the vision for what the suite would include, Dr. Callstrom says that Mayo Clinic collaborated with Philips to tailor the equipment needs so that the radiology staff could perform these important procedures without interruption.

"Part of the collaboration with Philips was to take a look at solutions rather than just the procedural event," he says. "Can we plan effectively? Can we come up with an approach where we figure out what the thermal dose is, drive toward a specific dose, assess it afterward, and measure very accurately and objectively what the ablation margin is? None of these tools exist currently, so we're collaborating to develop new solutions."

The unification of the tools will allow for improved outcomes through precise, individualized medicine, Dr. Callstrom adds.

David Woodrum, M.D., Ph.D., an interventional radiologist, says Mayo Clinic physicians have used each modality — CT, MRI, fluoroscopy and ultrasound — individually for various procedures, but integration was needed to take patient care to another level.

"We need to couple the modalities together to bring out the best qualities of each, and then use that combination to bring new treatments for patients where there aren't treatments now," he says, adding that this space specifically improves options for patients in need of spine and pelvic interventions, and prostate and liver cancer therapies.

"I think the benefit of this new suite for patients is twofold: No. 1, creating procedures that were not possible before. Some of the prostate cancer recurrences we're treating really have had surgery, have had radiation, but just don't have any other options. So image-guided ablation gives them another treatment option," Dr. Woodrum says. "This is also true for some of the vascular malformations that we're treating in MRI. Many of these patients have exhausted standard surgical or medical therapies, and are really left without much hope. So if we can offer another treatment possibility due to more detailed imaging, then this gives our patients hope where there was none. No. 2, we need to deliver the most precise treatments we can possibly deliver. And by using each imaging platform in its most advantageous way, we can deliver the best results to the patient."

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