Unique collaboration advances positions for Swedish radiation therapy

Press release March 19, 2013

All Swedish university hospitals and seven leading specialist companies are establishing a national test bed to jointly drive the development of cancer treatment with radiation therapy, a field in which Sweden can become a world leader.

Health care and industry have joined forces in a consortium and have held the first joint meeting in Linköping. Within three years the collaboration will result in a highly specialized national test bed for innovative radiation therapy. As radiation therapy becomes increasingly effective, the demand for quality assurance is increasing as well. New diagnostic and treatment methods will ensure that cancer patients throughout Sweden can receive the best and safest medical care.

“We want to establish a creative interface between the hospital world and medical technology companies. In health care we have ideas about how to improve and ensure the quality of radiation therapy. Now we have a platform to convert them to reality,” says Sven Hertzman, first medical physicist at the department of radiation therapy, Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

The collaboration between health care and industry also enables new innovations to be implemented into health care faster, so they truly benefit the patient.

The initiative is partly financed by VINNOVA (Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems) and coordinated by the Innovation Center at Karolinska University Hospital.