The Interventional Centre — 31 months experience with a department merging surgical and image-guided intervention

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Abstract
Summary In order to meet the organisational and technical challenges invoked by the introduction of new technology in hospitals, The Interventional Centre was established at Rikshospitalet in 1996. The Centre is a research and development department on image-guided and minimal invasive therapy, with the following aims: to develop new procedures, develop new treatment strategies, make comparative studies between existing and new strategies, and study the social, economical and organisational consequences of new techniques. The department is cross-disciplinary and includes two completely merged operation theatres/radiology suites. In one room there is an open Signa 0.5 T magnet (General Electric Medical Systems, Milwaukee), the other room is a combined angiography and operation suite. From the opening on 1st June 1996 until the end of 1998, 1052 patients and healthy test-persons were treated or examined at the centre; 85 animal procedures and 86 technical tests were performed in the same period. The main advantages of the centre are: new procedures may be developed outside the normal hospital routines; cross-disciplinary work is encouraged; advanced, expensive technical equipment with a competent operating staff is made available to all the departments in the hospital.