Sidney Health Center Upgrades Its Nuclear Medicine Technology

As part of an ongoing effort to offer its patients the most cutting-edge medical imaging technology available, Sidney Health Center recently acquired the Symbia EVO from Siemens Healthcare.

The new Siemens machine is used in the application of Nuclear Medicine to patients. Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty that is used to diagnose and treat diseases in a safe and painless way. Nuclear medicine procedures permit the determination of medical information that may otherwise be unavailable, require surgery, or necessitate more expensive and invasive diagnostic tests. The procedures often identify abnormalities very early in the progression of a disease – long before some medical problems are apparent with other diagnostic tests. This early detection allows a disease to be treated sooner in its course when a more successful prognosis may be possible.

The previous nuclear medicine machine was installed approximately 15 years ago. The new machine offers new technology and replaces outdated equipment. "It was becoming increasingly difficult to find replacement parts for the old nuclear medicine machine," stated Radiology Operational Manager, Linda Labatte. "We are excited to have the new machine installed as Sidney Health Center serves a large area of the MonDak Region for nuclear testing and down time with the old machine was a big inconvenience for our patients and medical providers."

Radiology staff receive additional training to administer the tests ran by the different modalities. "Greg Arneson and myself went to Cary, North Carolina for a week to receive training for advanced applications of the nuclear medicine machine," stated Rance Haralson, Radiology Technological Manager. "This machine administers the test in a timelier manner, benefiting both the patient and the medical staff."

Sidney Health Center has offered nuclear testing for more than 30 years. Approximately 200 nuclear medicine tests are conducted each year at Sidney Health Center.

Physicians at Sidney Health Center can now serve a broader range of diverse patient populations and have access to industry-leading image quality to help inform care decisions and improve patient outcomes. The Symbia EVO utilizes a high-capacity patient bed, a 30% larger bore than previous systems and highly flexible detectors. These features are optimized to accommodate obese or critically ill patients and increase the variety of applications physicians can offer, providing comprehensive imaging configurations for general purpose, cardiology, oncology and neurology studies.

"We are thrilled to bring the Symbia EVO to our community," said Leszek Jaszczak, MD, Sidney Health Center Radiologist. "The Symbia EVO enables our facility to image a wider variety of patients than ever before with higher image quality. And thanks to the generous dimensions of the system's bed, we can maximize patient comfort and image difficult-to-move patients without transferring them from the gurney."