Proton therapy patient and prostate cancer survivor, Bill Barbour, was a guest speaker at the 2014 National Proton Conference in Washington, D.C. Barbour is a proton therapy advocate that educates and shares his experience with others. See his story in the video above.
The National Proton Conference in Washington, D.C., was a convergence of proton therapy community leaders, clinicians, advocates and vendors. The NPC is the premier proton therapy event of the year where the best of the best in the proton community was on hand. Highlights of the event included a presentation by Christopher Pericak of The Advisory Board Company about the state of the proton therapy marketplace in today’s health care reform climate. Proton pioneer Dr. James Cox kicked off the conference with a keynote speech about “where we are headed.”
Dr. Elise Berliner, from the U.S. federal agency on health research and quality (AHRQ), addressed patient registries. Joe Matteo from ProNova Solutions educated to attendees about the advances of ProNova’s compact SC360 proton therapy system. A Provision representative joined a panel of experts on treating breast cancer with proton therapy and our chief medical physicist spoke on innovations in design, equipment, and engineering. Additionally, the economics of proton therapy, planning, developing and launching a proton center, plus treating breast, head and neck cancers, and much more was presented.
Another highlight was the announcement of the results of a 2014 NAPT/Dobson DaVanzo report on an in-depth “quality of life” survey of nearly 4,000 prostate patients treated with proton therapy at multiple centers across the U.S. The conference was a huge success and an important collaboration of clinical and technological efforts in the proton industry.