On Thursday, November 12th Her Majesty Queen Máxima opened three innovative operation rooms of the Radboud university medical center Nijmegen. With this new Mitec (Medical Innovation & Technology Center expert) will operating rooms, 3D röntgengrafie (imaging) and MRI together. This provides a unique treatment and research facility where diagnosis and treatment meets. Thus it becomes possible in the near future to treat cancer within one day. With this initiative, the Radboud university medical center hopes to make a significant contribution to sustainable and meaningful innovations in healthcare.
The plan for Mitec arose a few years ago as a future desire of the Radboud university medical center Nijmegen to combine scientific research, advanced technology and treatment. With EGM architects and EGM consultants an intensive design and implementation process was run in which these goals were achieved.
The opening of the operation theaters is preceded by an innovation bazaar. At bazaar there will be demonstrations of the robots of the future, staining and imaging to better remove tumor tissue, 3D and virtual reality. Then Her Majesty Queen Maxima will be guided at the three new operating theaters, after which she will open the MITeC OR's officially.
One of the possibilities of the new MITeC OR's is to be able to monitor already during an operation to be able to analyze removed tissue in the MRI and the cut surfaces in the patient. The surgeon during an operation will remove tissue as little as possible, but also needs certainty whether the treatment has been complete. Once it appears that there is still residue remained, further surgery is immediately possible, or one may opt for treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Currently patients have to come back a second time for a second surgery or treatment. Radboud university medical centre will start in 2016 with the development of this one-day treatment in a number of forms of cancer.
Research laboratory MITeC is also referred to as 'field laboratory' where doctors, companies and researchers can develop new ideas. By doing so MITeC provides not just facilities but also a special research methodology by which the added value of new technology can already be determined at an early stage. The objective of MITeC is to create a state-of-the-art OR with optimal imaging, in which all the new devices and techniques can be tested for their potential. The term 'potential' is then defined as whether a technological solution will actually contribute to better and more affordable care.
Prof. Dr. Maroeska Rovers, Professor of Evidence-Based Surgery:. "MITeC practices hard for a more demand-driven way of working across the boundaries of disciplines and hospitals going. When we manage to find each other, we become world leading. "