G00D DESIGN AWARD 2011

Award Number :11G10041, 11G11051, 11G14008

Award-winning item :
Heavy Ion Irradiation System / Particle therapy facility

Company :
Toshiba Corporation + National Institute of Radiological Sciences + NIHON SEKKEI, INC.

Producer :
Yoshiharu Yonekura, President, National Institute of Radiological Sciences

Director :
Yuuichi Izu, Group Manager, Social Infrastructuer Design Group, Design Center, Toshiba Corporation +Masayasu Takahashi, Chief Architect, Medical Facilities Design Dept., NIHON SEKKEI, INC.

Designer :
Masahiko Kitayama, Tomiaki Ishihara, Shigeru Otoha, Junya Suzuki, Yuuko Saito, Yasuhiro Shiino, Yoshitaka Yoshimura, Design Center, Toshiba Corporation / Junji Murayama, Shinpei Takeda, NIHON SEKKEI, INC.

Description

Seeking to promote greater use of Japan's world-leading heavy-particle radiotherapy technology, realizes high level of safety and caring treatment environment.

Evaluation

The service draws on the past expertise and results accumulated from particle beam cancer treatment and synthesizes them into a new, total service system offering installation, equipment operations, treatment know-how and medical services. It will serve to become a model for development of such services abroad and in other territories. The psychological burden for patients undergoing cancer treatment is great, so the service starts from the core principle of "everything is for the patients' sake." It's clear that medical device makers, construction firms, and medical staff have come together in this venture to provide the best quality service. In addition, the attempt to realize a profitable return as a business, providing a top quality level of treatment technology while at the same time maintaining satisfaction among patients (who are also customers) deserves positive praise. In particular, the service is concurrently run at several locations, allowing for as lean as possible an operation that is not susceptible to the usual limitations imposed by skilled practitioners being locked in one location. It is a next-generation system design that will make Japan's medical industry competitive in the world while making contributions through a uniquely Japanese use of medical technology.