SPONSORED FEATURE: ELEKTA
CANCER CONTROL 2014 77
I
n establishing a partnership to improve the radiation
therapy situation in South Africa, Equra Health and Elekta
are building a vision to change the radiotherapy landscape
for an entire continent.
In April 2013, Equra Health and Elekta entered into a longterm agreement in which Equra
Health (Cape Town, South
Africa) will acquire at least 15 Elekta radiotherapy systems and
associated equipment, and work together to build an advanced
facility for training cancer care professionals. In addition to
addressing South Africa's need for greater radiotherapy
capacity, the Equra Health-Elekta partnership also will look to
other African countries, most of which have insufficient or suboptimal radiotherapy
facilities and training, and in some cases
none at all.
"Africa is the least developed region worldwide in
radiotherapy capabilities," says Erhardt Korf, Chief Operating
Officer at Equra Health, a corporation of 24 private clinics.
"This preferred provider partnership will ensure that South
Africans, and in time inhabitants of additional African
countries, will have access to world class technology and
technical and application support."
Building up South Africa … and the Continent
Access to radiotherapy in South Africa has been hampered by
many factors, including equipment costs, according to Korf. The
Elekta-Equra agreement is designed to increase the
affordability of radiation therapy technology for Equra Health,
which in turn will dramatically increase patient access to these
services over the next 10 years.
"It will allow public and private health care sectors to
cooperate, which will help reduce waiting lists for treatment
and enable patients to receive therapy earlier," he says. "This
will improve outcomes and provide a significant economic
benefit for the country as a whole."
As African countries begin to acquire modern radiotherapy
technology, Equra Health, in partnership with Elekta, sees an
opportunity to assist them from a training perspective and to
accelerate these countries' provision of world class radiation
oncology services. The joint training centre - equipped with
Elekta radiotherapy solutions - will serve as a focal point of
these efforts.
"The training centre will help address the problem of skilled
care, both locally and in the rest of Africa as we move from
older machines to the latest Elekta technology. Currently, this
type of training requires visits of overseas technical and
application specialists to South Africa and other African
countries, or sending staff members abroad."
The training centre will reinforce what Equra Health has
already been doing in South Africa, and avail clinics in other
African countries of these resources. Equra Health is involved
in the full spectrum of cancer care delivery in South Africa,
including intensive equipment training, clinical training
programmes on advanced radiotherapy techniques, a
comprehensive quality assurance and incident reporting and
review programme, and - through its strategic alliance
partner, the Independent Clinical Oncology Network (ICON)
- comprehensive training for family practitioners on all
aspects of cancer.
"Our vision is to transfer this knowledge and experience to
oncology units in Africa through our envisaged training
centre and an active partnership model," Korf explains. "The
training centre will offer theoretical and practical training to
qualified cancer management professionals right here on the
African continent. In this model, clinical personnel from the
African countries could rotate through one or more of the 24
Equra Health units in South Africa, and work with our
personnel on identical Elekta equipment they will use in their
own centres. The focus is on the skills and systems required
by qualified personnel to deliver an efficient, safe and
clinically beneficial cancer care service in smaller oncology
centres."
Korf predicts the training facility - scheduled to open in the
fourth quarter of 2014 - will educate over 600 clinical staff and
more than 100 administrative staff over five years. l
NEW CANCER CARE HORIZONS IN SOUTH AFRICA:
A RADIOTHERAPY VISION FOR A CONTINENT
For more information
Elekta - elekta.com and Equra Health - equrahealth.co.za