January 13, 2012 — Varian Medical Systems has established its first education center in Tokyo, Japan, to train radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and technologists who work with Varian's cancer treatment systems. In addition, the company has established a clinical contact center (help desk), to provide phone support for Varian's customers in Japan.
These services are housed in a new facility located in central Tokyo. The training center will begin offering courses to radiation oncology clinical professionals in February 2012. It features a computer-equipped classroom with 20 workstations, audiovisual equipment, and two customer lounges.
" The number of cancer patients who received radiotherapy treatments in Japan doubled over the last decade, rising from roughly 100,000 per year in the late 1990s to over 250,000 today," said Makoto Yamada, sales manager for Varian in Japan, citing statistics that have been published by the Japanese Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (JASTRO). "JASTRO predicts that the number of Japanese people needing access to radiotherapy services will rise to 360,000 by 2015. But there is a shortage of trained clinical professionals in Japan. Varian's new education center represents our commitment to helping address the expanding need for training in this area."
The field of radiation oncology has evolved over the last decade, and now requires the skillful use of complex technology that enables doctors to precisely target tumors while minimizing exposure of surrounding healthy tissues. "Varian's training center will help clinicians develop the skills for using Varian technology to deliver advanced treatments like intensity-modulated radiotherapy [IMRT], image-guided radiotherapy [IGRT], and stereotactic radiosurgery [SRS]," Mr. Yamada said. "The new help desk will then provide them with phone and e-mail support."
Varian's new offices are located at 5-1 Kabutocho Nihonhashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. The first class scheduled in the new training center will take place in February, focusing on Varian's Eclipse treatment planning software. Additional courses are scheduled for March, April, and May, covering Eclipse operations plus the ARIA oncology information system for managing cancer treatments.
The Tokyo project is the sixth such education and training center established by Varian globally, following similar initiatives in Las Vegas, Nev.; Beijing; Zug, Switzerland; Buc, France; and Mumbai, India.
For more information: www.varian.com
May 14, 2024 
