18 OUR PRODUCTS
RAYSTATION: ENHANCING THE USER EXPERIENCE
Ekström, as his job title suggests, is at the sharp-end of RayStation product development, overseeing a 90-strong cross-disciplinary team comprising computer scientists, UI/UX specialists, physicists, algorithm developers and testers. Their remit: to translate RayStation product strategy – which is owned and articulated at executive board level – into continuous improvement and product innovation for a diverse clinical customer base that runs to well over 700 cancer centers in 40 countries.
A patient-centric product roadmap and a relentless focus on user experience: these are the fixed points that define the operational and strategic priorities for Emil Ekström, chief functionality owner of RaySearch’s treatment-planning system RayStation®*.
Collectively, Ekström and colleagues share a near-obsessive focus on user experience. As such, the team mindset is not only to enhance the speed and efficiency of the algorithms with every release, but to make RayStation software as intuitive and friction-free as possible. “That means smooth workflows, not too many clicks, and access to the tools you need when you need them,” Ekström explains. DIVERSIFY AND UNIFY A case in point is the launch of high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy planning in the RayStation 10B* release at the end of last year – a natural progression given RaySearch’s aim of supporting as many radiotherapy modalities and treatment machines as possible within RayStation. For context, HDR brachytherapy involves the temporary insertion of a small radioactive source inside the patient to yield highly targeted dose delivery to the tumor while minimizing damage to adjacent healthy tissue. The technique can be used alone or in conjunction with other therapies to treat a range of indications, including prostate, breast, head-and-neck and skin cancers.
Thanks to this new module in RayStation, clinics are now able to use the same treatment planning system for HDR brachytherapy and external-beam radiotherapy, yielding
* Subject to regulatory clearance in some markets.
