Varian and its parent company, Siemens Healthineers, will build a comprehensive digital, diagnostic and therapeutic ecosystem at Oulu University Hospital in Finland.

Part of a ten-year strategic partnership, the companies will provide imaging and radiation equipment for cancer treatment, workflow and decision support software and a variety of services for equipment maintenance to train the hospital’s staff and develop its workforce.

The hospital will use these technologies and services to improve the entire cancer treatment pathway and quality of care offered to cancer patients in Northern Finland.
"Through this partnership, we will be obtaining not just exceptional equipment, but also a range of services that will help us realize substantial operational and clinical benefits across the entire treatment continuum, from diagnosis to therapy,” said Juha Nikkinen, chief physicist at Oulu University Hospital, in a statement.

Among the solutions that will be installed are one Halcyon and two TrueBeam radiotherapy systems; a BRAVOS afterloader for high-dose-rate brachytherapy; the ARIA oncology information system and Eclipse treatment planning software; and a range of medical imaging systems, including a Somatom go.Open Pro CT scanner, a PET/CT scanner and a Magnetom Vida MRI scanner.

Oulu University Hospital is expanding its cancer center and will install the devices at a new radiotherapy center that will be completed in spring 2022. The hospital currently sees about 25,000 patients per year, many from Northern Finland.

Siemens acquired Varian in 2021 for $16.4 billion. The deal marked Siemens' return, after over ten years, to the radiotherapy market after its exit in 2011. The combination of both provides Oulu University Hospital with a single point of contact to address both its radiology and radiotherapy needs.

"As part of Siemens Healthineers, we can help a partner like Oulu University Hospital unify fragmented cancer care pathways and improve workflows in order to enhance the quality of care," said Kevin O'Reilly, president, Radiation Oncology Solutions at Varian.

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