The Value of SGRT — Q&A with John Mathai, Medical Physicist

What are your main responsibilities in the radiation oncology department at Northwest Community Healthcare?

As the Medical Physics Director at Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights, IL, I help manage a busy radiation oncology department that has several linacs and an HDR machine, from different vendors. In addition to annual, monthly, and quarterly quality assurance responsibilities, I work with various treatment planning systems for all modalities.

How are you using SGRT in your department?

We use SGRT to treat cancers that are next to important organs. For example, SGRT is particularly useful in the treatment of left-side breast cancers that are close to the heart, enabling a technique called deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH). Breast treatments are the overwhelming majority of treatments, and we use Catalyst HD for patient positioning and motion management.

We would eventually like to expand our uses for SGRT to all patients.

What C-RAD products do you use?

We use C-RAD’s Sentinel 4DCT and Catalyst HD on the Elekta Infinity linear accelerator.

What do you think is the biggest difference for your practice with Catalyst and Sentinel?

Patient safety is the biggest difference both in terms of consistent patient setup and intra-fraction motion management of the patient.

What are other benefits you’ve noticed since implementing Catalyst?

The improvements in patient care and comfort have really stood out. The therapists are well-adjusted to the workflow and have confidence in C-RAD solutions for breast patient setups. This also gives extra confidence in our care staff and the patients understand the extra precision and safety in treatments with surface-guided imaging being used. For DIBH patients, it is a bonus because the patient is actively participating in their treatment for consistent setups.

Northwest Community Healthcare is a community hospital in the Arlington Heights suburbs of Chicago, on the leading edge of radiation treatment. Its cancer care clinic boasts a comprehensive radiation treatment program with multiple treatment modalities.