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Originally posted by AnnunakiRageTheChosenPeop
reply to post by Quantum_Squirrel
The efficacy of this is not proven. See below:
San Diego Gamma Knife Center
Re: NY Times article: www.nytimes.com...
Response from Kenneth Ott, MD, and David Hodgens, MD
January 4, 2011
Editor
New York Times
Dear Sirs:
Thank you for the excellent article pointing out the risks associated with radiosurgery performed on equipment that is not dedicated to that purpose, and that is often a hybrid created with one company’s hardware driven by another company’s software, and then purchased by administrators that want to compete on the cheap.
As the Medical Directors of the San Diego Gamma Knife Center, the potential for exactly the type of complication described in the article is what compelled us, in 1994, to demand a treatment unit dedicated solely to brain radiosurgery, and we have operated a modern Gamma Knife Center in the San Diego area ever since, performing more than 3,000 procedures.
Radiosurgery is strong medicine. We have seen it do wondrous good, but it has the potential to do life and limb threatening harm. It is scalpel in the hands of some, or a dangerous, sharp knife in the hands of others. As this technique has evolved outside the brain over the past twenty-five years, we have continued to advocate the use of dedicated equipment, and thus use a CyberKnife unit for extra-cranial radiosurgery. With equipment, staff, and physicians dedicated to doing only one thing, the risk of human error, lapse of oversight, or incompatible computer technologies is either eliminated or greatly reduced, and the treatment is inherently safer, and in our opinion, more effective for the patient.
Your article illuminates a real problem in our field, and should push our colleagues in radiosurgery (before they are pushed by regulatory bodies) to have second thoughts about performing radiosurgery using what amount to modified, hybridized linear accelerators, and to consider doing what is ultimately best for patients—the utilization of dedicated radiosurgical devices like the Gamma Knife and CyberKnife.
Yours Sincerely,
Kenneth H. Ott M.D. David W. Hodgens, M.D.
December 28, 2010
Originally posted by Quantum_Squirrel
reply to post by TechVampyre
Why would the Government do that??
This machine would save them millions if not billions in health care .. surgery times .. waiting lists etc ....
I wouldn't worry about Big Pharma either .... there will always be something new to cure and make tons of cash from.
Its the "15 minute" thing that gets me...does everything have to be done in 30-minutes-or-less in order to be good enough for the masses?