Choosing Radparts For Your Linac Needs

Radparts is a unique supplier of OEM replacement parts for linear accelerators and CT scanners.  We partner with Acceletronics who offers a number of services surrounding LINACS including sales of new and refurbished radiation equipment, the servicing of radiation equipment, and a variety of services including relocation and removal of linear accelerators.  This arrangement allows us to provide services that other companies cannot. Selling new and refurbished medical equipment can be quiet a challenge.  This is true of CT scanners, linear accelerators, MRI systems, and other higher valued medical equipment.  Medical facilities face a great deal of challenges of their own with making large scaled equipment such as financing, regulations, time issues, delays, and a million other obstacles that can cause delays.  When working with the team at Acceletronics and Radparts we help to create a process that is practically seamless for our clients.  This allows you to focus on growing their business and creating an environment to offer the most complete and comprehensive patient care program for patients undergoing radiation therapy.

Why We Are Better Than the Rest

  • Short-Terms Solutions – Sometimes facilities need a little more time to prepare for the installation and delivery of their new or refurbished linear accelerator.  When our clients find themselves in need of a temporary solution to ensure their patients needs are met, we have them covered.  Our sister company, Acceletronics, has pre-owned equipment that can be purchased to buy some time. These systems can then be utilized as a back up at a later date or resold.  This is often a more affordable solution than renting a mobile unit.
  • Financing – New facilities and healthcare centers do not often have a lot of capital to buy and operate new medical equipment.  We offer financing options as well as less expensive refurbished equipment that can be used to provide quality care to patients until facilities are more established.
  • Contracts for Service – We offer a number of contracts for servicing equipment. The major benefit is the team effort between Acceletronics and Radparts which ensures the parts that are needed to service your equipment are available and ready when needed.  Here at Radparts we specialize in parts for repairing all linear accelerators and radiation equipment.  We are the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for LINAC. With over 65,000 parts in stock and 3,200 individual line items – we are almost guaranteed to have what is needed to service or repair your equipment in a timely fashion.
Radparts is the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for Linear Accelerators and Radiation Oncology equipment.  Radparts provides high quality, user friendly, low cost parts and support for linear accelerators and radiation equipment. More information can be found at https://www.radparts.com/.

Dynamic Couch Rotation Advancing In Radiation Technology

A new advancement in radiotherapytechnology has provided patients with brain cancer a new alternative for treatment that could increase the accuracy and the speed of treatment. This style of treatment will rotate the patient in sync with the radiation beam with a technique called Dynamic Couch Rotation. Current treatment has been done using Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT). This new technique has proven to be just as accurate but can also improve delivery times which in turn will reduce exposure to healthy/sensitive brain tissues nearby and decrease side effects overall. You can read the article “New radiotherapy system that moves patients in syncwith x-ray beam can deliver accurate treatment for brain cancer” to grasp a better understanding of this new treatment.

Advancements in Systems That Offer Treatment of Radiation Therapy

There are constant advancements in the treatment of diseases.  With these advancements the equipment used in treatment must also continue to evolve.  Radiation therapy is a great example of this process, as the cancers treated change and more effective treatments are found the equipment used must also adapt.  You can see this with IGRT, Image-Guided Radiation Therapy, that not only delivers the radiation therapy but does so while incorporating imaging as the treatment is being done.  So instead of separate imaging and then radiation this process allows everything to happen at once.

It is important for companies like ours, Radparts, and our sister company, Acceletronics, to stay up to date on advancements within our industry such as the ones found in Imaging Technology News.  As an industry leader in sales, service, and support of new & refurbished linear accelerators and CT scanners, and OEM replacement parts for linear accelerators and radiation equipment we are a one stop shop for medical facilities and health care centers.

Is It A Good Idea to Purchase A Pre-Owned Linear Accelerator?

Not every facility needs to purchase a new linear accelerator.  There are many times where a slightly used LINAC will serve the purpose of the facility at a fraction of the cost of a new one.  Some facilities however, benefit from the purchase of new equipment.  It really just depends on a number of variables to determine if a used, new, or refurbished linear accelerator is the solution for your facility. When a facility needs the newest technology on the market, it is obvious a used or refurbished LINAC will not benefit them.  This is also the case if you are not looking to replace the machine anytime soon.  A brand new or almost new linear accelerator is a better option for facilities that don’t want to replace their machine in the next ten to fifteen years and are looking for the latest and greatest technology. The struggle between buying new, refurbished, and used radiation oncology equipment is a struggle many facilities face.  It is probably important to note however, that the minute you use a new linear accelerator it becomes used.  So not every used machine is “used” to the same extent.  Used and refurbished linear accelerators can be suitable for facilities under certain circumstances including:
  • When your facility is treating less than 8 to 10 patients a day, the revenue you are producing will not sustain the expense of a new machine.
  • Areas where reimbursement is low, and your clinic needs to be profitable to continue providing treatment may be better suited to purchase a used or refurbished unit.
  • The machine will be used in a limited capacity and doesn’t necessarily benefit from the latest technologies.  These circumstances may include using the machine for research, treating animals, or non-medical, industrial purposes.
  • Your facility will be able to afford the latest and greatest in the next couple of years but just can’t without first building a profitable practice.
  • You are opening a new medical center and don’t have the resources to secure financing on a new machine.
  • You are moving to a new location, can’t afford downtime, and need to be able to treat patients during the process and currently only have one machine.
  • If your facility needs a back up to prevent downtime in patient care during maintenance and repairs on your main LINAC.
  • A new facility is being built but you need a temporary way to treat patients.
  • When the hardware aspect of treatment is not as important as the software.  Used and refurbished equipment can have updated software installed when your budget doesn’t allow for both upgraded software and hardware.
Obviously, brand new, state of the art equipment when purchasing linear accelerators and CT scanners is something all facilities desire, it is not always the most practical situation.  Purchasing used equipment doesn’t mean that your facility is operating with technology that is necessarily out of date.  Often newer style equipment can be acquired with little use.  It is important to remember just because it is used it doesn’t mean it is used up.  Used simply means that at one time or another it has been in use for patient care.  It could be the latest Varian model used for treatment in a facility briefly.  Used equipment can often save facilities a great deal of money in machine costs and financing. Radparts is the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for Linear Accelerators and Radiation Oncology equipment.  Radparts provides high quality, user friendly, low cost parts support for linear accelerators and radiation equipment. More information can be found at https://www.radparts.com/.

Flash Radiotherapy Improving Cancer Treatment In The Future

Researchers are continuing to find new techniques and develop new technology to better improve cancer treatment by using cutting edge Flash radiotherapy. This procedure delivers doses of ultrahigh radiation to a patient in fractions of a second. This type of treatment could be very beneficial and increasingly more effective in tumor treatment. With faster and fewer treatments, less healthy tissues will be damaged. It also will potentially allow more patients access to the linear accelerator equipment in treatment rooms if treatments are less time. More studies continue to focus on this new medical revelation that could help shape a new form of treatment in the near future.

For more information on Flash Radiotherapy you can read this article, https://physicsworld.com/a/clinical-linear-accelerator-delivers-flash-radiotherapy/

A Little Preparation Goes A Long Way In Maintaining Linear Accelerators

Linear accelerators, LINAC, are large scaled medical devices that deliver external radiation in the form of a beam to cancerous tumors in order to shrink them.  As with most medical equipment, LINAC systems are expensive which is a barrier that many facilities face when purchasing a new or refurbished unit.

With the expense of these large scaled systems it is important to make sure they are properly maintained and that you have access to linear accelerator parts for repair as needed.  Medical facilities can contract with companies that specialize in maintenance and repair services of LINAC systems such as Acceletronics or have on staff a team of professionals whose job it is to provide these services for their equipment.  There are advantages and disadvantage to both options, facilities choose based on their budget and facility needs.

Linear accelerators have evolved over the years. LINAC machines no longer only provide external radiation beams for treatment.  Major advancement in this technology include onboard imaging systems and portal dosimetry. Such complex systems require biomedical and clinical engineers to not only understand what these machines do but also how they are operated.  Even with advanced training, until the engineer has hands on experience it is difficult to truly understand how the machine functions.

Not only is the linear accelerator expensive but the expertise to use and understand the machine is costly as well.  This again is an issue that faces many medical facilities.  These two factors alone make up the most significant aspect of expense faced by facilities when deciding on the purchase of equipment.

All linear accelerators are not created equally and therefore when replacing an existing system there will be a significant cost to not only bring new equipment in but also the training on the individual piece of equipment.  One way to combat this is to replace existing LINAC with identical refurbished linear accelerators.

We have discussed a lot about the expense of these units however there is also significant revenue to be gained by having external radiation treatment available to patients seeking treatment for cancerous tumors.  It is important for facilities to make sure these machines are functioning at peak capabilities at all times.  Downtime not only impacts revenue but also patient care.  In order for patients to have effective treatment for their tumors it is important they are able to strictly follow the treatment schedule laid out by their radiation team.  If equipment is down this is not possible.

To ensure that patient care and revenue is not affected by machine downtime it is crucial to maintain equipment.  Machine maintenance includes repairs in anticipation of failure.  If a parts failure is eminent based on previous experience it behooves the facility to purchase the LINAC replacement part ahead of time so that service can be provided around patient’s treatment schedules.  This allows facilities to schedule downtime to prevent unplanned downtime.

Radparts is the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for Linear Accelerators and Radiation Oncology equipment.  Radparts provides high quality, user friendly, low cost parts support for linear accelerators and radiation equipment. More information can be found at https://www.radparts.com/.