Help advance medical imaging
This fall, the Victoria Hospitals Foundation needs your help to raise $1.5 million for two new Interventional Angiography Systems, one at Victoria General Hospital and one at Royal Jubilee Hospital.
These systems are unique in that they help treat a wide variety of conditions, including stroke, renal failure, liver failure, cancer, osteoporosis and infertility. You can read more about how this equipment has saved lives here.
“Interventional radiology may not be a specialty you have heard of before, but it is a pillar of the modern hospital,” says Dr. Paul Sobkin, Clinical Section Head of Angiography/Interventional Radiology at Island Health. “Every day, my colleagues and I use sophisticated medical imaging equipment to guide us as we perform a multitude of minimally invasive procedures on a wide variety of patients. This equipment supports nearly every medical department in our hospital system.”
Interventional Angiography Systems allow doctors to see inside blood vessels and internal organs so they can perform life-saving procedures. The new machines will allow physicians to see smaller blood vessels and will reduce the amount of radiation exposure to patients and caregivers by up to 60% compared to the existing equipment.
These machines will be used for more than 60 different procedures, including:
- Removing blood clots from arteries and veins
- Establishing vascular access to allow kidney dialysis
- Stabilizing spinal fractures due to osteoporosis
- Stopping internal bleeding following trauma or surgery
- Treating uterine fibroids to avoid hysterectomy
“With these new systems, we will be able to perform advanced procedures not currently possible and apply our techniques to more patients with increased accuracy and confidence,” says Dr. Sobkin.
The new equipment will replace systems that are 13 years old and in urgent need of replacement. Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals are the only referral centres on Vancouver Island for a variety of interventional radiology treatments. The systems will be used for 10-12 procedures a day, or more than 2,500 a year.
Every contribution made to this campaign, up to $750,000 in total, will be matched by a generous anonymous donor, giving you the opportunity to double the impact of your gift.
