New MUHC starts moving in the heavy equipment

MONTREAL – McGill University Health Centre’s new super-hospital is nearly complete, and the organization has acquired approximately $255 million in advanced equipment. The leading-edge tools include a roboticized angiography suite, featuring the Artis zeego system from Siemens.

“It will let us treat patients faster, more accurately, with more precision,” said Interventional Radiologist Dr. David Valenti (pictured). He told CTV news that, “We’ll do everything we do today, but better, faster, safer and cheaper.”

Dr. Valenti noted that by treating many ailments as day procedures or short-term stays, interventional radiology can reduce overall costs when compared with many surgical procedures that require longer in-patient hospitalizations.

Procedures that can be performed more quickly through interventional radiology, with less pain to patients, include the treatment of tumours and uterine fibroids, the opening of blocked fallopian tubes for infertility, as well as angioplasties and the provision of biopsies.

The 832 beds at the MUHC hospital represent 100 fewer than are currently available at current MUHC facilities, but more beds are in single rooms and that is expected to lower infection rates.

As well, the new technology is expected to allow for more outpatient procedures, thus decreasing the need for beds. “Yes there are fewer beds and that’s an issue, but the trend in the last decade is to move toward more outpatient therapy and that’s because the tech is improving,” said Dr. Valenti.

The 28,000 pieces of equipment also include a device known as a cyber knife, which can shrink tumours through radioactive beams, thereby making invasive incision unnecessary.

“It delivers energy to the tumour and by delivering energy they will break up the DNA, the molecules will break up and the tumour will shrink,” said Director Of Medical Physics Dr. Jan Seuntjens.