Northern Perspectives: Commissioning and Clinical Operation of the Northernmost Linear Accelerators in Canada

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Offering radiation therapy services closer to northern communities is an exciting step forward in improving patient quality of care in Canada. Thanks to close collaboration between Alberta cancer centers, expert and high quality treatment is now possible closer to home for more Canadians. Methods: The development of an excellent program in a short time frame was possible thanks to strong collaborations within Alberta as well as with the wider Medical Physics community. Virtualization of training and day-to-day communication allows a center, 500 km away from the next nearest radiation therapy program, to still draw on expertise of dozens of medical physicists, radiation therapists, and radiation oncologists. Results: A collaborative and competent local team has come together around a patient centric program that treats patients close to home. The team is treating 14 patients daily. With staffing to fully utilizing one unit at a time, the team has treated over 60 patients since opening. The response from the community is overwhelmingly positive and there is high demand for treatments. Conclusion: A new radiation therapy treatment center was opened in a northern community during a global pandemic. Lessons learned have application to the opening of radiation therapy centers across Canada especially as Covid continues to be an ebbing and flowing global threat. The response from the community and the benefits to patient quality of life is also motivation for other jurisdictions to bring radiation therapy closer to all Canadians.