Care for seriously ill patients has stepped up a notch at Footscray Hospital via new technology, the first of its kind in Victoria.
The new medical imaging suite will help with treatment of stroke and trauma patients as well as those battling with deadly liver cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of just 17 per cent.
The MIYABI Angio-CT system at Footscray Hospital is the first in the state and only the second of its kind in Australia.
Western Health radiologist Dr Julian Nguyen said the imaging system from Siemens Healthineers combines CT scanning and angiography, enabling more accurate and real-time assessment of treatment results.
“While CT and angio systems have been around for a long time, what’s unique is the marriage of the two, which enables our team of interventional radiologists to go back and forth without having to move their patients,” he said.
“Traditionally, if we needed both systems, we had to carefully pack our patient up and transport them – with all wires and needles in place – from the CT to the angio suite.”
The new system is able to target and isolate the treatment of tumours, ensuring minimal impact on healthy tissues.
It is not only faster, safer and more comfortable for the patient, but also enables the hospital to take on complicated cases that would have been deemed too risky in the past.
“For our patients, this allows for outpatient treatments as opposed to the need for more invasive surgery,” Dr Nguyen said.
The new system has already enabled Western Health to boost patient treatment numbers by 20 per cent.
