Image caption: [From left to right] Laura Whitehouse - Principal Clinical Technologist (Clinical Governance lead) in Nuclear Medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Dr. James Cullis - Head of Department and Consultant Clinical Scientist, Erin Ross - Consultant Clinical Scientist and Deputy Head of Nuclear Medicine, James Clarke - Principal Clinical Technologist (Training lead), Yasmin Wahid - Principal Clinical Technologist, Professor Stuart Green - Director of Medical Physics, Lydia Ram - Clinical Scientist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, and Lawrence Foulsham - Business Manager for Molecular Imaging at Siemens Healthineers GB&I with the Symbia Pro.specta at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB), part of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, is the first in the world to implement a Symbia Pro.specta SPECT/CT from Siemens Healthineers, providing more patients access to a wider range of services. Equipped with specialised clinical tools, low dose imaging and intuitive workflow, the Symbia Pro.specta is helping to expand services in the nuclear medicine department, including cardiology, neurology, oncology and orthopaedics.
Installation of the Symbia Pro.specta updates existing equipment, allowing the nuclear medicine department to achieve higher quality images at a low patient dose. The fully integrated SPECT/CT modernises facilities to maximise abilities and serve more patients. Octreotide scans have also been restarted in support of the PET service, with selective internal radiation therapy services now being conducted on the new system due to the high-quality CT facilities available.
The Symbia Pro.specta features Tin Filter technology and CT iterative reconstruction for ultra-low patient and room dose. Flexibility of the streamlined system enables QEHB staff to easily adapt by simply adding another scan when patients identify additional pain areas. The system’s intuitive and automated workflow guides the team through the decision-making process and is expected to help QEHB achieve consistent results quickly and more efficiently.
QEHB has already reduced the time needed for cardiac scans with the Symbia Pro.specta which is particularly useful for monitoring cardiac side effects of chemotherapy patients and improving the patient pathway. Providing a comfortable experience is important for QEHB technologists who engage with patients directly. The wider bed of the Symbia Pro.specta eases patient transfer with additional features such as pre-recorded breathing instructions in different languages and a smaller and quieter scanning camera which facilitates a more relaxing patient experience.
“Features such as a small, quiet camera, and the availability of audible breathing instructions, help to enhance the patient experience, which is important for us as we have a lot of patients who are nervous,” states Laura Whitehouse, Principal Clinical Technologist (Clinical Governance lead) in Nuclear Medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. “The design has facilitated an improvement in patient access to a wide range of SPECT/CT services at the hospital, helping us to increase patient throughput.”
"We’re pleased to play a part in enabling expansion of nuclear imaging services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham through the implementation of the world’s first Symbia Pro.specta SPECT/CT from Siemens Healthineers,” states Lawrence Foulsham, Business Manager for Molecular Imaging at Siemens Healthineers GB&I. “The Symbia Pro.specta extends functionality for SPECT/CT imaging at all energy levels to provide access to a wide range of patient types while maintaining patient comfort and examination quality for the department.”
