The independent group of radiation oncologists of Gamma West in St. George, Utah, touted the TomaTherapy system as “the world’s most advanced radiation therapy,” but reporter Kirsten Stewart said these “units surfaced after the turn of the century” and are not new to the Salt Lake City area, according to the report. TomaTherapy delivers radiation in a slice-by-slice approach, opposed to other treatments that target entire tumors at once.
She went on to note that hospitals are increasingly using high-tech treatments to drive patients to their facility and some hospitals might actually be over-treating patients.
Her report notes that biomedical advancements are responsible for 20 percent of our increase in longevity — socioeconomic status is responsible for the remaining 80 percent. This shows the rise of high-tech treatments, like TomaTherapy, has coincided with an increase in longevity but is not wholly responsible for our longer lives.
Ms. Stewart included insight from Nortin Hadler, MD, an immunologist and microbiologists from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “We are very medicalized in this country. We think that every predicament in life is a medical predicament and there’s some miraculous solution,” Dr. Hadler, also the author of Rethinking Aging and Worried Sick, said in the report.
Paul Levy, the former CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, recently discussed the story on his blog, Not Running a Hospital. Mr. Levy commended Ms. Stewart for not being “taken in by the latest hype” and finding alternative viewpoints while reporting the news of a hospital’s latest technology development. He also linked the story to the overarching trend of “medical arms races” taking place in hospitals.
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