Varian Enters Oncology Collaboration with Ballad Health

Varian, a Siemens Healthineers company, announced a 10-year agreement with Ballad Health, to bring advanced oncology treatment services to serve patients in rural communities across the Appalachian Highlands in Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, northwestern North Carolina, and southeastern Kentucky.
 
The new, decade-long collaboration includes eight TrueBeam linear accelerators and one Ethos adaptive radiotherapy system to be delivered to six sites in Tennessee and Virginia, enabling Ballad Health to accelerate its schedule to implement newer linac technology.
 
“As part of Siemens Healthineers, Varian is committed to expanding access to world-class quality care, for everyone, everywhere,” said Arthur Kaindl, Head of Varian. “We’re excited to help Ballad Health implement advanced radiotherapy solutions and services, providing its care teams with the technology to deliver world-class care to its patients.” 
 
This oncology collaboration with the Johnson City, Tennessee-based health system, will deliver advanced treatment technology through a highly integrated digital network across Ballad Health by accelerating the patient journey from screening to survivorship. 
 
The agreement is one of the largest in Varian’s history and includes a portfolio of products and services supporting a unified oncology ecosystem. Using Varian’s Aria Core oncology management solution and the Varian Executive Partnership program, care teams across Ballad Health will be able to access greater visibility into patient data to gain deeper insights needed to deliver more personalized care.
 
Aria Core, a cloud-based system, will replace a series of separate, localized systems to provide a holistic view of patient information. The Varian Executive Partnership program will support the implementation of streamlined, consistent workflows, and access to actionable data insights. Upgrades to the Eclipse treatment planning platform will enable next-generation advanced planning to deliver more consistent, tighter control and higher quality plans than versions currently in place.
 
“This agreement highlights our natural evolution as a care delivery leader for rural areas and our ability to make advanced care accessible and available for people in the communities we serve,” said Alan Levine, Ballad Health Chairman and Chief Executive. “This investment, coupled with other capital projects in the coming years, cement Ballad Health and its facilities as a top choice in healthcare – for patients, team members and clinicians alike.”
 
To optimize its technology implementation and support adoption, Ballad Health team members and clinicians will leverage Varian’s Advanced Oncology Solutions (AOS) Professional Services to provide operational support and consulting services to best serve its patient population for the entirety of the agreement. In addition to consulting services, Varian’s AOS team will also provide professional services for medical physics and dosimetry.
 
Under the agreement, Varian will also support a technology roadmap, enabling Ballad Health to adapt to future technology advancements, including the flexibility to select different system configurations, installation dates, and sites as market needs change. In addition to support for technology enablement, Varian will provide market analytics and gap analyses to support Ballad Health in making informed technology decisions.
 
Varian has been working with facilities within Ballad Health, a not-for-profit health system based in Johnson City, Tennessee, comprising 20 hospitals, post-acute care and behavioral health services, and a large multi-specialty group physician practice for more than 25 years.