Nashville, TN — On April 11, 2012, Saint Thomas Hospital announced the opening of its proprietary Unity System, the first fully-integrated neurosurgical center of its kind in the United States for the treatment of brain tumors.

The Unity System includes a unique arrangement of leading edge technologies – Brainlab Brainsuite®, VISIUS Surgical Theatre™ by IMRIS with intraoperative MRI and TrueBeam™ STx with Novalis® Radiosurgery – paired with real time collaboration of medical experts to care for patients with brain tumors.

“The Unity System is going to revolutionize the way we treat brain tumors,” said Dr. Steven Abram, neurosurgeon and co-medical director of the Saint Thomas Brain and Spine Tumor Center. “Saint Thomas Hospital will become a national destination for the treatment of brain tumors. This new system provides a comprehensive approach to cancer care – not only through collaboration with other clinicians but also through the most advanced technologies.”

A multi-million dollar investment, the Unity System builds upon Saint Thomas Hospital’s unique foundation of seamless physician collaboration with all new surgical, imaging and radiation equipment that enables the physicians to work collaboratively in real-time to determine the optimal treatment for each patient.

“While brain tumors impact a small percentage of the population, this disease has a dramatic effect on patients, their well-being and their families,” said Dr. Paul Rosenblatt, chief of radiation oncology at Saint Thomas Hospital and co-medical director of the Saint Thomas Brain and Spine Tumor Center. “The Unity System will allow us to provide a better quality of life for brain tumor patients and their families – and means a dramatic improvement in their chances to thrive.”

Saint Thomas Hospital’s Brain Tumor Group, a team of 15 clinicians that includes neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, radiologists, and pathologists, meets weekly to discuss each brain tumor patient’s case from a proactive prospective, and not retrospectively, allowing for more efficient care coordination and better patient consultation.

The multidisciplinary team of clinicians now has access to the Unity System’s grouping of technologies, including:

Brainsuite/VISIUS Surgical Theatre: This hybrid neurosurgical operating room, which combines technologies from Brainlab and IMRIS, includes the latest imaging and audio-video capabilities so that, in effect, all clinicians can be brought into the OR in real time.

TrueBeam STx with Novalis Radiosurgery: Novalis Radiosurgery has the potential to treat more patients with its highly precise dose and advanced integration of clinically proven tools. Saint Thomas Hospital is one of the first hospitals worldwide to utilize TrueBeam STx, powered by Novalis Radiosurgery, which offers real-time feedback of the targeted tumor that is achieved by using dynamic X-ray imaging throughout the procedure.

"The Unity System allows the team at Saint Thomas Hospital to manage patients using an interdisciplinary approach. The way in which Brainlab technology facilitates this collaborative approach will become the model that other hospitals adopt," said Stefan Vilsmeier, president and CEO of Brainlab. "The real game changer here is the ability to capture images during surgery which can then be processed and leveraged in critical decision-making for the well-being of the patient. It's offering a new level of precision in brain tumor removal that wasn't possible before. The entire team is involved and can fine-tune the surgical plan together, helping to better preserve the patient's eloquent, or functional, brain tissue."