£48,000 Collaborative Fundraising Boost for Radiotherapy
New technology to streamline radiotherapy treatment planning is being rolled out – thanks to a collaboration between The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital’s League of Friends, SATH’s own charity – and Lingen Davies.
Together we have agreed a three-year subscription of more than £48,000 for new software that will be an integral part of the radiotherapy workflow. The auto-contouring software can significantly reduce the time needed for clinicians to outline organs on multi-level plans which then form the basis for radiotherapy. The time needed for radiotherapy dosimetrists and medical physicists to literally draw around an organ or tumour site has been reduced in some treatment areas from 50mins to just 2-3minutes. Staff will still strictly review and adjust outlines where required. But it means time can be reinvested in other work, such as creating or evaluating treatment plans for cancer patients.
Representatives from all three charities were given a demonstration of how the software benefits the service by Adam Williams, Radiotherapy Physicist, at a presentation last week.
“We have worked alongside other cancer charities before but this is a brilliant example of how these well-supported, local organisations can work together to benefit those impacted by cancer in our community. Being able to fund this new piece of technology, which will positively impact on our patients and staff for many years to come, is exactly the reason why Lingen Davies was initially launched.”
