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Advantages of Purchasing Refurbished Radiation Oncology Equipment
Purchasing refurbished medical equipment is never a bad idea. Despite the allure of buying new radiation oncology equipment, purchasing a refurbished linear accelerator for your practice might be a better choice. There is a lot to consider when you’re getting ready to purchase radiation oncology equipment for your practice like space, budget, and personnel impacts. Before you purchase all-new equipment consider just a few of the advantages of buying refurbished medical equipment below:
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Costs
The biggest advantage when buying refurbished linear accelerator equipment is the cost. Buying new can really blow your entire budget, but used ones can actually make your budget stretch more, allowing you to do other things for your practice. By going for the cheaper option, you still get a quality piece of equipment at a fraction of the cost of what you would pay for a new model.
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Buy More Equipment
If you’d like to offer more services to your patients, you can easily buy two or more pieces of radiation oncology equipment for your practice instead of just buying one new linear accelerator. This allows you to treat more patients for the price of what you would have spent if you only bought one machine. This way your practice can offer more appointments, getting more patients on the books and increasing your ROI.
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Use That Money Elsewhere
For the price you’ll buy for a refurbished linear accelerator, you can use that extra money to do other things that will benefit your practice. You can use that money to redesign the patient waiting room area or hire more staff for better customer service. If buying a used machine is just as good as a new one and will get the job done, why not use that extra money for good somewhere else? This way you’ll be able to grow your practice and expand its success.
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New Equipment For Half The Price
Refurbished pieces have been fixed by professionals to function like new, so you’ll get a practically brand-new linear accelerator affordably! Every refurbished piece is seen by a skilled medical technician before getting discharged back into service, so everything that needed fixing was fixed and you get something practically new without the new price tag.
As with any piece of medical equipment new or refurbished, there are times when equipment fails or needs maintenance. For these instances there are professionals offering service and parts to repair and maintain linear accelerators. Companies such as Radparts offer a huge selection of linear accelerator parts and innovative replacement and repair solutions that in many cases can save you up to 50% or more on your linear accelerator parts costs.
Learn more about Radparts and the variety of services and parts they offer to repair medical equipment including: linear accelerators parts, CT scanners parts, linac parts, and radiation oncology equipment at www.radparts.com. To contact one of our medical equipment repair specialists for parts or service call toll free 877.704.3838 for 24/7/365 support.
Correcting tiny differences in patient’s position for radiotherapy could increase survival chances
Barcelona, Spain: Very small differences in the way a patient lies during radiotherapy treatment for lung or oesophageal cancer can have an impact on how likely they are to survive, according to research presented at the ESTRO 37 conference.
These differences of only a few millimetres can mean that the radiation treatment designed to target patients’ tumours can move fractionally closer to the heart, where it can cause unintentional damage and reduce survival chances.
The finding suggests that survival could be improved by tightening up treatment guidelines to ensure patients are positioned more accurately.
Radiotherapy plays an important role in cancer care in, amongst others, hard to treat tumours such as lung and oesophageal cancer. However, it can cause side-effects and previous research shows that radiotherapy to the chest can have negative long-term effects on the heart, for example, increasing the risk of heart disease.
When planning radiotherapy treatment, cancer specialists create a CT image of their patient. This reveals the exact position and size of the tumour within the body. At each subsequent treatment, another image is created and used to check that the patient and, therefore, the tumour is in the same position, within a certain threshold, before the treatment is delivered.
The new research was presented by Corinne Johnson, a medical physics PhD student at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, part of the Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester, UK.
She and her colleagues studied a group of 780 patients with non-small cell lung cancer who were treated with radiotherapy. For each treatment, patients were positioned on the treatment machine and an image was taken to confirm that they lay within 5mm of their original position. They used the data from these images to gauge how accurately the radiotherapy dose was delivered over the course of treatment, and whether it was shifted slightly closer or slightly further away from the patient’s heart.
When they compared these data with how likely patients were to survive, they found that patients with slight shifts towards their hearts were around 30 per cent more likely to die than those with similar sized shifts away from their hearts.
When they repeated the research with a group of 177 oesophageal cancer patients, they found an even greater difference of around 50 per cent. In both groups the pattern of survival remained even when researchers took other factors such as the patient’s age into account.
Johnson explains: “We already know that using imaging can help us to target cancers much more precisely and make radiotherapy treatment more effective.
“This study examines how small differences in how a patient is lying can affect survival, even when an imaging protocol is used. It tells us that even very small remaining errors can have a major impact on patients’ survival chances, particularly when tumours are close to a vital organ like the heart.
“By imaging patients more frequently and by reducing the threshold on the accuracy of their position, we can help lower the dose of radiation that reaches the heart and avoid unnecessary damage.”
Johnson and her colleagues are now looking at the data in more detail to see whether particular regions of the heart are more sensitive to radiation than others, and they hope to investigate the effect of differences in patient position in other types of cancer.
President of ESTRO, Professor Yolande Lievens, head of the department of radiation oncology at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium, said: “Radiotherapy treatments are given according to strict protocols to ensure that patients get the most effective treatment with the fewest possible side-effects. This research suggests that changes to lung and oesophageal cancer protocols could positively impact the overall survival of patients with these cancers, both of which have relatively high mortality rates.”
Original Source: https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-04/esfr-ctd041918.php
Original Date: April 21 2018
Discover Why You Need Scheduled Repairs to LINAC Systems Prevent Unnecessary Downtime
To ensure that medical equipment such as LINAC systems and CT Scanners are fully functional and effective at all times, while preventing unnecessary downtime, scheduled maintenance is recommended. Scheduled repairs allow for treatment to be scheduled around replacing worn parts and preventative maintenance. Medical equipment of all varieties, including linear accelerators, is costly and expensive to replace. Facilities should not wait until they are damaged or dysfunctional to create a plan of action. There is a significance cost savings in scheduled repairs and pre-planning for replacement.
What Is Scheduled Maintenance?
Scheduled maintenance is the planned component of repair or replacement that is also referred to as preventative maintenance whereby the system is thoroughly inspected to ensure that all parts are functioning properly. Linear accelerator parts are replaced that are known to wear out when historically known to wear out.
Why Are Scheduled Repairs to LINAC Systems Important?
LINAC systems are incredibly sensitive in terms of handling and maintenance. They need to be kept functional and unnecessary downtime needs to be avoided especially because on-time treatment is imperative. If maintenance is not completed and needed maintenance is avoided damage to some key parts of the LINACS or alter the value of your equipment. Linear accelerators and radiation oncology equipment that is being used in hospitals need to be kept in perfect working order for them to deliver accurate and timely results that guide doctors in the treatment of their patients.
Where to Find Linear Accelerator Parts
A LINAC system is prone to faults, as is all medical equipment, and may require occasional repairs. To ensure that the system stays functional and is effective, you need to find a service company that offers genuine and functional linear accelerator parts and repair services. Working with a company that has a record of offering professional repair services, when they are needed with access to LINAC parts is crucial. Working with highly skilled engineers guarantees you of a highly effective LINAC system.
What’s the Cost for Scheduled LINAC Systems Repairs?
The cost of scheduled linear accelerators repairs will depend on the company that you hire to perform service. Look for a LINAC service company that goes out of their way to ensure timely service, repairs, monitoring, and replacement parts for reasonable. Seek a company with a proven track record that you can rely on.
Learn more about Radparts and the variety of services and parts they offer to repair medical equipment including: linear accelerators parts, CT scanners parts, linac parts, and radiation oncology equipment at www.radparts.com. To contact one of our medical equipment repair specialists for parts or service call toll free 877.704.3838 for 24/7/365 support.
Lower radiotherapy dose just as good as targeted treatment in breast cases
Thousands of women who have radiotherapy for breast cancer could be spared severe side-effects after scientists found that targeted treatments or lower doses were just as effective.
The study, led by Cambridge University and the Institute of Cancer Research in London, showed that irradiating the tumour – rather than the whole breast – was just as good and came with fewer side-effects.
A second approach – bathing the whole breast with radiation but using a lower dose – was also equally effective and also reduced adverse effects.
The less aggressive technique was shown to reduce permanent disfigurement of the breasts. The main side-effect of radiotherapy is an overall change in breast appearance; women also report pain, hardening of tissue, sensitivity and a build-up of fluid.
The scientists told the European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona that each of these side-effects were reduced with the targeted or low-dose approach.
More than 38,000 women have radiotherapy for breast cancer in England each year. The procedure is given after having a tumour surgically removed and is designed to eradicate all remaining cancer cells.
The trial involved testing the lower dose and more targeted dose among 1,200 women at 41 British hospitals, and then monitoring them for five years after treatment.
The researchers found no difference in rates of cancer recurrence with the less aggressive approaches, and the patients reported significantly lower side-effects.
Dr Indrani Bhattacharya, a clinical research fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research, said: ‘The findings from this study are reassuring for women who are offered either whole breast or partial breast radiotherapy using this technique of radiotherapy, which is simple to deliver and already available in centres worldwide.’
Grete Brauten-Smith, of the Breast Cancer Care charity, said: ‘While radiotherapy is never a walk in the park, it will be wonderful if fewer people experience traumatic side-effects, such as severe pain, as a result.’
Original Source: https://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/health/lower-radiotherapy-dose-just-as-good-as-targeted-treatment-in-breast-cases-14150281
Original Author: Ben Spencer
Orignal Date: April 2 2018
Repairing LINACS With OEM Replacement Parts
LINAC system is the common name for linear accelerators. Their parts are very complicated, and they are intricately built machines. A direct linear accelerator is a gadget that utilizations high radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic waves to quicken charged particles for generating high energies in a straight way, inside a tube-like structure called the direct linear accelerator.
The resonating frequency of the medical LINAC is about 3 billion Hertz cycles per second. This is the most widely recognized gadget to treat the tumor with outside pillar radiation. To sum up, the linear accelerating agent is fundamentally a mechanical assembly to accelerate charged subatomic particles, utilized as a part of radiotherapy, and the creation of radionuclides.
What to do when the machine gets broken?
Frequently, the parts for repairing linear accelerator agents, LINAC, are expensive to the point that they come just in case of the genuine sum for purchasing another LINAC. This influences numerous individuals to think about whether it is smarter to simply purchase another machine by and large since alternate parts of the LINAC may separate soon enough and should be supplanted too. Along these lines, as we would like to think, settling radiation machines and LINACs is the better alternative.
Repairing LINACS with OEM replacement parts
Parts for repairing linear accelerator agents may be very costly, however, that is whether you purchase new parts. Rather, you can select the sensible alternative, which is revamping or repairing the broken parts. There are various firms in the market that offer revamping of parts for radiation hardware. The restored parts are frequently returned rapidly, and this productive procedure spares you a large portion of the cash you would spend on another part. Accordingly, it is best to locate a decent overhauling organization for your LINACs.
Linear accelerators are complicated devices. Each one has thousands of parts that work together to send subatomic particles hurtling at incredible speeds toward a target. They can be used in radiation therapy to fight cancer, academic research and more.
It only takes one failing part of the linear accelerator to stop the entire machine. Those broken parts are not just tossed in the trash. Instead, OEM replacement parts often refurbish and repair the parts for future use with the same level of quality as a new part.
In fact, OEM replacement parts repair several hundred LINAC systems a year for clients all over the world and are best to use for replacement parts.
When a client sends any of the OEM manufacturer or service provider a damaged part, they can often get them a replacement within one day. Similarly, they can then take the damaged part and hand it over to the trained technicians to repair for resale. So, don’t wait and use them with confidence for repairing the linear accelerators parts.
Learn more about Radparts and the variety of services and parts they offer to repair medical equipment including: linear accelerators parts, CT scanners parts, linac parts, and radiation oncology equipment at www.radparts.com. To contact one of our medical equipment repair specialists for parts or service call toll free 877.704.3838 for 24/7/365 support.
Industry News… The Kind That Makes You Feel Good
World-class facility to treat cancer in pets
A new purpose-built radiation oncology facility for dogs and cats has officially opened its doors in Sydney, promising to revolutionise the treatment of cancer in pets.
The groundbreaking facility, built by the Small Animal Specialist Hospital in North Ryde, boasts Australia’s first dedicated Veterinary Linear Accelerator with stereotactic capability.
“We will be able to save and extend the lives of pets across the country as a result of this incredible technology,” the Small Animal Specialist Hospital managing director Dr Justin Wimpole said.
“It has taken many years of design, development and delivery and we are proud to have launched such a much-needed facility for our furry friends.”
The central feature of the facility is the new Elekta Synergy Agility Linear Accelerator which is one of the most technologically advanced cancer treating linear accelerators available. Commonly seen in many human radiation treatment facilities throughout the world, it can provide stereotactic, definitive and palliative radiation treatments all in the one machine.
“The beauty of the machine is that it allows us to treat some cancers of very small areas with minimal effects on surrounding normal tissues—and in a shorter period of time to what was previously the case,” Dr Wimpole said.
“We are able to focus the delivery and strength of the radiation in a very precise and direct manner for our patients. This means we can maximally treat the cancer with minimal damage to the surrounding healthy tissue.”
The good news for pet owners is that the service is covered in part by many pet insurance premiums, Dr Wimpole added.
“Cancer is one of the most common illnesses to affect pets during their life and as pets age it will become more common. Hopefully, we can help to treat as many of them as possible with our groundbreaking technology.”
Original Source: https://vetpracticemag.com.au/world-class-facility-treat-cancer-pets/
Maintaining LINAC Systems with OEM Replacement Parts
Any electrical equipment that is repeatedly used will break down due to several reasons such as improper maintenance or lack thereof. They can also malfunction owing to poor electrical connections, overrunning the machine’s capability, having an untrained individual operate the equipment, including not replacing worn out parts when needed.
The Importance Of LINAC Parts
A linear accelerator (LINAC) is a very complex medical device that delivers high-energy X-rays to treat patients with cancer. Each component within a LINAC system is important, and all of them need to continually undergo rigorous, cleaning, testing, and maintenance to ensure optimal performance.
Linear accelerators Parts are very costly, and most LINAC owners often consider the option of buying a brand-new unit instead of paying for outrageously high repair parts costs, including maintenance and upkeep fees. Even though all LINAC parts have separate but vital functions, they are linked to each other and therefore, need to work in cohesion. Any breakdown of one of the parts can lead to a ripple effect that may render the whole system useless.
Cooling the LINAC Parts
The linear accelerator works by producing high energy particle beams, thus making the cooling system inclined to overheat. Depending on the model, most LINACs use a water cooling system that provides thermal stability to the system and allows the gantry and drive stand to operate at a constant temperature.
Today there are technologically advanced air-cooled chillers for LINAC cooling systems that are would probably cost more to replace a broken system. There are several independent oncology equipment refurbishing companies that have original equipment manufacturer (OEM) LINAC replacement parts, which even though they are also costly, however, once these LINAC parts are replaced, the system can continue to work like new.
The only concern when using such a complex and volatile piece of equipment is to maximize its uptime and minimizing on the overall total cost of ownership. Having said that, LINAC parts are available through the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) online or through a local dealer. The catch-22 is, do you go the economical way, such as scouring the local neighborhood depot to find the cheapest option that will work anyway, or do you stick with the original manufacturer’s LINAC parts?
Purchasing Replacement Parts
While the LINAC parts you find locally will probably serve you for a while until you can afford an OEM, but when it comes to quality, the materials will not be the same as the original. You can end up with a new replacement LINAC part that does not match up in the case of complicated parts and assemblies.
Maintaining LINAC systems with the original equipment manufacturer replacement parts also guarantee warranty coverage on each piece of equipment and in case the system fails, you can file a warranty claim provided the replacement parts that have been used match the manufacturer specifications. Using OEM LINAC parts also ensures the related components are compatible with the system, they are durable, and most importantly, they are reliable.
Learn more about Radparts and the variety of services and parts they offer to repair medical equipment including: linear accelerators parts, CT scanners parts, linac parts, and radiation oncology equipment at www.radparts.com. To contact one of our medical equipment repair specialists for parts or service call toll free 877.704.3838 for 24/7/365 support.
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The Average Lifespan of Linear Accelerator Parts
A linear accelerator, often referred to as a LINAC, is a type of particle accelerator that customizes electrons or high energy x-rays to conform to the shape of a tumor to destroy cancer cells while sparing the life of normal surrounding tissue. It has a variety of built-in features that are designed to ensure a patient receives only the prescribed dose as directed by a physician. However, linear accelerators are made up parts components that could age over time. What is the average lifespan of these parts?
Lifespan Of A Linear Accelerator
Two major determinants of the lifespan of a linear accelerator and indeed any equipment, are usage and maintenance. Although it is reasonable to expect a usage of between 5 to 10 years, maintenance of the accelerator will be critical to just how much you enjoy the equipment. Here we look at the parts of a linear accelerator and their average lifespan depending on usage.
Parts such as Magnetron and iView detector last for about two years with high use, and between 4-6 years with low and moderate use. An x-ray tube lasts for about 18 months upon high use, 3 years when the system is moderately used, and above 4 years when the usage is low. An XVI detector lasts for about 5 years upon high usage, about 7 years when used moderately, and over 10 years when the accelerator usage is low. On the other hand, a Thryratron tube can last up to 3 years when the usage is high and 5 years and above upon low to moderate usage of the accelerator.
Age Vs. Usage
Basically, the average lifespan of each linear accelerator part largely depends on the part and amount of usage. Other parts such as the electron gun would need a replacement after one year on high use, while it can last even above 6 years upon low usage. Environmental factors can also affect the ion chamber of a linear accelerator, high humidity can cause a reduced lifespan. While an average ion chamber will only need a replacement after four years, one in an environment with high humidity will need a replacement after a year.
Replacing Aging Parts
Changing aging parts over time is ideal to avoid causing the equipment any damages. Some companies tend to consider the price of the equipment and the costs involved in changing the parts over time. However, this is never a good yardstick to even maximize profits in the long run as a breakdown of significant parts of the system may be disastrous for the equipment.
Learn more about Radparts and the variety of services and parts they offer to repair medical equipment including: linear accelerators parts, CT scanners parts, linac parts, and radiation oncology equipment at www.radparts.com. To contact one of our medical equipment repair specialists for parts or service call toll free 877.704.3838 for 24/7/365 support.