A Passage of Innovation

True innovation isn’t just about the invention of things. It’s about how those things make people’s lives better, easier, more meaningful.

Our pursuit of innovation in cancer care at The Lacks Cancer Center at Saint Mary’s Health Care in Grand Rapids, Michigan fueled the design of the patented doorless entry to the radiation treatment room. This extraordinary concept sheds new light on radiation therapy, one that unlocks a higher level of connection, compassion and care between patients and providers.

An Amazing Maze
The doorless entry is just that – an open maze design for the radiation treatment room. Unlike conventional radiation therapy, with its massive vault door, the open entry elevates the comfort and safety of patients and providers alike.

The concept of the patented doorless entry is simple yet profound: Without the presence of an imposing, locking door, patients experience the freedom of receiving radiation without feeling entombed. Let alone the anxiety of possibly being trapped inside. The inviting open entry puts patients at ease, diminishing their isolation by closing their proximity to providers, thus allowing for quicker access and more intimate care.

Equally as innovative to the patient experience is the heightened safety. Designed by Saint Mary’s Director of Medical Physics Tewfik Bichay, PhD, and patented in collaboration with the West Michigan Science and Technology Initiative, the doorless entry is a short hallway maze of 2-4’-thick shielded composite walls that purposely jut and angle to abort radiation. As it travels through the maze, radiation is reduced many hundred-fold with every bounce, until only harmless emissions escape at the open entry. Further, electronic locks and surveillance systems ensures safety from an unobserved entry into the doorless maze.

What’s more, no door means no patient distress or provider injury or downtime caused by a failed door mechanism. Not to mention reduced operational costs, with no purchase, installation or maintenance of a 3,000-pound door.

Innovatively flexible, this patented doorless entry design meets state requirements for shielded radiation therapy rooms and can be licensed for both new construction and retrofitting into existing radiation therapy floorplans – and can even require a smaller footprint than conventional treatment rooms.

 

Come Into the Doorless Entry

Safety. Satisfaction. Simply the most innovative solution to radiation therapy – the doorless entry takes cancer care to a new level for your patients and your providers. See for yourself by calling The Lacks Cancer Center at Saint Mary’s Health Care at 1.877.LACKS MI. or contact Dr. Bichay at 616.685.6367

Tewfik Bichay, Ph.D., describes how his doorless entry design works: