Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, CA, USA), a developer radiotherapy equipment and software for the treatment of cancer, has established its first education center in Tokyo to train radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and technologists who work with Varian’s cancer treatment systems. Moreover, the company has established a clinical contact center (Help Desk), to provide phone support for Varian’s customers in Japan.

These services are housed in a new facility that is conveniently located in central Tokyo. The training center will begin offering courses to radiation oncology clinical professionals in February 2012. It features a computer-equipped classroom with 20 workstations and state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment, as well as two customer lounges.

“Radiotherapy is widely recognized as an efficient treatment for cancer. The number of cancer patients who received radiotherapy treatments in Japan doubled over the last decade, rising from roughly 100,000 per year in the late 1990s to over 250,000 today,” said Makoto Yamada, sales manager for Varian in Japan, citing statistics that have been published by the Japanese Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (JASTRO). “JASTRO predicts that the number of Japanese people needing access to radiotherapy services will rise to 360,000 by 2015. But there is a shortage of trained clinical professionals in Japan. Varian’s new education center represents our commitment to helping address the expanding need for training in this area."

The field of radiation oncology has evolved over the last 10 years, and now requires the skillful use of complicated technology that enables clinicians to target tumors precisely while minimizing exposure of surrounding healthy tissues. “Varian’s training center will help clinicians develop the skills for using Varian technology to deliver advanced treatments like intensity-modulated radiotherapy, image-guided radiotherapy, and stereotactic radiosurgery,” Mr. Yamada said. “The new help desk will then provide them with phone and e-mail support, whenever questions come up as they use Varian technology to treat patients.”

“The addition of a dedicated Help Desk service is in keeping with Varian’s commitment to expanding our support for the clinical oncology community of Japan,” added Jon Hollon, Varian’s director of worldwide training and education. “Whereas in the past customers needing assistance sometimes had to wait for a return call from an applications specialist, they now can access a dedicated team of highly trained product experts during local business hours.”

The first class scheduled in the new training center will take place in February 2012, and will be based on Varian’s Eclipse treatment planning software. Additional courses are scheduled for March, April, and May of 2012, covering Eclipse operations plus the Aria oncology information system for managing cancer treatments.

“In the future, we will work with our clinical partners in Japan to develop courses on quality assurance procedures, safety, and the newest clinical modalities,” Mr. Hollon said. “Radiotherapy use is on the rise in Japan, and our goal is to provide world-class education and customer support on a local basis. The new training center in Tokyo will help us customize our services to the specific needs of Japanese clinicians, and enable them to obtain training without leaving the country.”

The Tokyo project is the sixth such education and training center established by Varian worldwide, following similar initiatives in Las Vegas (USA), Beijing (China), Zug (Switzerland), Buc (France), and Mumbai (India).

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