Tech company Philips and Augusta University Health in Georgia have partnered to improve the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer through the use of Augusta University Health’s hybrid operating room.
As part of their long-term collaboration, the organizations are able to co-create certain clinical solutions.
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Augusta University Health originally opened its hybrid operating room in May 2017. It brings multiple techniques into one space: navigational bronchoscopy, which makes it easier to locate tumors in a patient’s lungs; percutaneous biopsy, which allows clinicians to biopsy a small section of a lesion to see if it’s cancerous; and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, which lets clinicians use a video camera to operate inside a patient’s chest.
All the techniques are aided by intra-operative cone beam CT imaging, which captures images of the inside of an individual’s chest.
In a statement, Dr. Carsten Schroeder, a thoracic surgical oncologist at the Georgia Cancer Center and Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, said that prior to using the hybrid OR, it could take as long as six weeks to diagnose a patient. But now, he’s able to “tailor the patient’s care plan in one day instead of having to schedule multiple follow-up appointments,” he said.
He added that detecting and diagnosing small tumors in the lungs can be challenging. By the time they’re discovered, they have often grown or increased in density and developed to an advanced stage.
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Overall, the aim of the hybrid OR is to shorten the diagnosis and treatment aspects of a patient’s journey.
In other news from Philips, the company recently inked an agreement with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory for a real-time patient monitoring application. The tool, called Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit (or Batdok), allows a medic to use a tablet or smartphone to monitor more than one casualty in the field.
Photo: nevarpp, Getty Images
