July 21, 2010 – CIVCO Medical Solutions this week announced the first installation of the Protura Robotic Patient Positioning System at Agnesian HealthCare in Fond du Lac, Wis.
Michael Vander Kooy, M.D., a board-certified radiation oncologist with Agnesian HealthCare’s Central Wisconsin Cancer Program (CWCP), said the new system helps the CWCP to deliver state-of-the-art cancer care.
“The Protura system provides us with positioning capabilities and accuracy that would otherwise be impossible,” Vander Kooy said. “We felt CIVCO had a great product with Protura and that the company was committed to the product line and future advancement.”
In addition, when combined with CIVCO’s Universal Couchtop and SBRT Body Pro-Lok, Protura becomes an all-in-one motion management solution.
CIVCO’s Protura also has a short learning curve.
“Within an hour, literally, our staff was trained and ready to use Protura,” said Heather Bowen, M.B.A., R.T. (R) (T) (CT), radiation oncology supervisor at Agnesian HealthCare’s CWCP. “The Protura system has been one of the easiest pieces of equipment to learn. The system is intuitive and straightforward.”
In addition to Protura’s ease of installation, the system has had an immediate impact on the level of treatment patients receive.
“Protura has given the CWCP the ability to pinpoint tumor volumes with sub-millimeter accuracy,” said Bowen. “We are now able to adjust for setup variations in pitch, roll and rotation using the six degree of freedom robotic table. Protura offers patients increased accuracy of positioning without adding extra time on the treatment table.”
Protura has +/- 5cm travel in X&Y directions, with +/- 2.5cm travel in Z direction. The couch has +/- 3 degree rotation in pitch, roll and yaw. Protura features a virtual pivot point always at the isocenter, which allows for accurate adjustment, in-room touch screen controls and a control panel with indicator lights located on the couch. Protura is compatible with IGRT coordinate systems and supports CIVCO’s SBRT Body Pro-Lok attachments.
For more information: www.civco.com.