Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that 20 percent of the company's U.S. installed base has signed on to utilize Accuray's Treatment Planning Service. This demonstrates a significant increase over the 10 percent of U.S. sites that had signed on as of February 2009.
Accuray's Treatment Planning Service is designed to help customers maximize utilization of their CyberKnife System. The service connects each center's physicist team to a group of remote medical physicists who specialize in CyberKnife radiosurgery treatment planning.
The Treatment Planning Service can serve as a supplement for centers that require additional support to meet growing patient volumes or fluctuations in staffing without adjusting their fixed costs. It also can help new customers gain confidence, share knowledge, and begin delivering more complex CyberKnife treatments faster by providing a pathway for collaboration with specialized medical physicists.
At CyberKnife of Birmingham, Accuray's Treatment Planning Service provided added capacity and support to the startup goals of this new site, which went live in May 2009. CyberKnife of Birmingham has been able to take on a broad spectrum of cases from their referring physician base while providing world class care to the Birmingham community.
"The Accuray Treatment Planning Service has been very helpful in providing us with remote tools and supplemental planning support in managing our patient volume," said Elizabeth Fourie, administrator for CyberKnife of Birmingham, in Birmingham, Alabama.
"Treatment planning by medical physicists is a core component in the workflow of CyberKnife radiosurgery treatment delivery," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Accuray Incorporated. "Because Accuray's Treatment Planning Service helps CyberKnife centers control costs and run their business more efficiently, it's catching on really quickly amongst our customer base."
Accuray recently entered into a multi-site agreement with Alliance Oncology, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alliance HealthCare Services (NYSE: AIQ), to facilitate access to Accuray's Treatment Planning Service at five of their CyberKnife Centers and leverage the remote toolset offered by the Service.
While the Treatment Planning Service is currently focused on U.S. CyberKnife Centers, the company will begin reaching out to international customers in 2010. To that end, Accuray has formalized the first international agreement with CyberClinic in Kiev, Ukraine.
"We are committed to delivering the highest standard of quality and care to the patients we serve. For this reason, we have partnered with Accuray's Treatment Planning Service to help us accomplish that goal," said Yuri Spizhenko, M.D., Ph.D., president of CyberClinic.
To schedule a demonstration of Accuray's Treatment Planning Service at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, please visit www.accuraychicago.com.
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