Big Bore upgrade at Bristol

Former director of medical physics Dr Alan McKenzie joins Philips account manager Gary Bailey, Medical Equipment Management Organisation’s Colin Bassett, senior radiographer Karen Bannerman, head of radiotherapy physics Cathy Hall, radiotherapy services manager Kate Love, Philips project manager Cath Sellwood, Philips CT sales specialist Derek Tarrant, superintendent radiographer Simon Smith and consultant clinical oncologist  Dr Alison Cameron.

Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre has replaced its scanner with a Philips Brilliance Big Bore CT system dedicated to radiotherapy and oncology.

Chosen for its facility to integrate with existing systems, Brilliance Big Bore is designed specifically for radiation treatment planning, with an 85 cm aperture and a large field of view (60cm true scan field of view) to help improve treatment for breast, lymphoma and larger patients by providing accurate simulation to improve the precision of radiation therapy delivery.

The bore size facilitates scanning of patients with immobilisation devices, patient monitoring, intravenous delivery devices, respiratory devices and other apparatus without compromising image quality or positioning.

Head of radiotherapy physics Cathy Hall said: “It will increase our ability to scan patients in the treatment position, with improved immobilisation techniques.  It will also enable the use of gating technology and facilitate the implementation of SBRT.”

See the full report on page 30 of the November 2010 issue of RAD Magazine.