Proton Therapy Room Designed to Offer Comfort, Relaxation to Patient

A new patient-centric proton therapy room has been designed to stimulate patient comfort during proton treatments by allowing patients to selectively add relaxing sound, light, and images to the treatment room environment before they initiate therapy. This will help improve the patient and staff experience, transforming a sterile, detached setting into one that comforts and soothes as the patient becomes an active participant in the process.

IBA Group (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), a developer of cancer diagnosis and therapy technologies, and Philips Healthcare (Best, the Netherlands) reported their first installation of a patient-centered proton therapy treatment room in the United States. A new addition to the Willis-Knighton Cancer Center (Shreveport, LA, USA) will be the first IBA installation to integrate the Philips Ambient Experience.

“This new installation is the first to come to fruition from the Philips-IBA cooperative agreement,” said Olivier Legrain, chief executive officer at IBA. “It is demonstrative of a successful collaboration with Philips in offering highly advanced, patient-centered care, and we are delighted it will be integrated into our new proton system installations.”

“Ambient Experience enhances our ability to provide superior cancer care,” said Dr. Lane Rosen of the Willis-Knighton Cancer Center. “The soothing and empowering atmosphere will make our patients more comfortable, which will allow our staff to work more efficiently. IBA and Philips have been excellent partners, so it made sense to work with them to bring this unique experience to our patients.”

Willis-Knighton will be the first center to utilize Proteus One, IBA’s single-room compact gantry system for a more cost-effective, smaller footprint option. The USD 40 million project is expected to begin treating cancer patients with protons in early 2014. Together with Philips, IBA presented a life-size model of the ProteusOne proton therapy room combined with the Philips Ambient Experience at the 54th annual meeting of ASTRO, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, in Boston (MA, USA), in October 2012.

IBA (Ion Beam Applications, SA), is a cancer diagnostics and treatment company focused in the field of proton therapy. The company’s expertise lies in the development of next-generation proton therapy technologies and radiopharmaceuticals that provide oncology care providers with quality services and equipment, including IBA’s fully integrated IntegraLab radiopharmacy system, and dosimetry systems for quality assurance (QA) of medical equipment and increased patient safety.

The Willis-Knighton Cancer Center, opened in 2000, provides a diverse range of treatment options for cancer patients, including medical oncology and hematology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, and gynecologic oncology. A regional cancer center, Willis-Knighton provides diagnostic services such as positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), X-ray, CT imaging, and laboratory services. In addition, it provides social services counseling, nutritional counseling, educational resources, support groups, and community education programs.

Related Links:
IBA Group
Philips Healthcare
Willis-Knighton Cancer Center