Technology
Wentworth-Douglas Hospital is committed to maintaining state-of-the-art technology in efforts to provide the most comprehensive and highest quality care found nowhere else in the region. At Wentworth-Douglass, you'll find passionate professionals who truly care about you as a human being, and whose first priority is to provide you with unsurpassed skill and expertise.
Seacoast Cancer Center's Quantum Leap in Technology 
Wentworth-Douglass Hospital's Seacoast Cancer Center is using one of the most advanced radiation therapy systems available today - the Novalis TxTM. The system delivers fast, precisely focused, high-energy radiation to a localized area to destroy tumors or to make other medical repairs that often cannot be addressed by conventional surgery including malignant and benign lesions of the brain, lung, liver, kidneys and other areas of the body. A high-definition treatment beam matches the shape of the tumor from every angle. Novalis TxTM can also be used to deliver frameless radiosurgery treatments, a more patient-friendly alternative to other systems that require immobilization with a head ring that attaches to the skull.
MammoSite procedure shortens treatment time for breast cancer
Breast cancer patients now have the option for a treatment procedure called MammoSite only available at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in the Seacoast area. The treatment usually lasts five days, allowing the patient shorter treatment and recovery times.
A MammoSite balloon catheter is inserted into the breast during a surgical procedure. After the procedure, the patient visits the Seacoast Cancer Center to prepare for the radiation procedure. During treatment, the catheter is connected to a thin tube attached to a computer-controlled High Dose Rate machine that delivers a tiny radiation seed into the balloon for approximately eight minutes. The seed returns to the machine until the next treatment session and the patient is free to do normal activities without restrictions.
Find out more about breast cancer at the American Cancer Society. Learn their guidelines for early detection of cancer.
To make an appointment for a mammogram, contact the Women's Life Imaging Center.
The Imaging Center at Wentworth-Douglass
The custom designed Imaging Center at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital provides physicians and radiologists advanced computer technology to generate three-dimensional images from the cross-sectional CT scan. Computer screens can be raised to eye level with the push of a button; lighting the workstation with the glow of the images displayed. With 3-D viewing capabilities, virtual representations of vessel interiors can be traveled through and explored, and still images of organs can be twisted and turned on-screen. Doctors and technicians use the Workstream 4D software tool to assess 3-D images using a fourth feature, time.
The da Vinci®STM Robotic System
The innovative da Vinci®STM Robotic System allows Wentworth-Douglass surgeons to perform the complex and intricate gynecological procedures. With the employment of robotic technology, surgeons are able to operate in a less invasive and more accurate manner without even touching the patient. The daVinci®STM four robotic can maneuver beyond a human hand's natural range of motion. With the range of the da Vinci®STM arms, any motion can be attained. A tiny camera within the robotic arms of the da Vinci®STM feeds a 3-D image of the surgical process to a screen that the surgeon looks at through binocular-like lenses. With their entire body working to control the robot, the surgeons are in full control of the robot's actions. The sutures used by the robot are the width of a human hair. Such precision can reduce the risk of infection and scarring, decrease blood loss and speed recovery.
64-Slice CT Scanner
The CT (or computed tomography) scan is a radiological technique that has been used since 1974 to provide an accurate slice-by-slice X-ray of the body in order to allow physicians to more easily diagnose diseases early. Using revolutionary technology, the 64-slice CT is able to take 192 images of the heart per second, as compared to 40 images per second in traditional 16-slice equipment, capture images of an organ in one second, and perform a whole-body trauma scan in 10 seconds. The difference causes a quicker and more accurate diagnosis. The new 64-slice CT scanner is also able to provide 3-D images of the organs' interiors and arteries without introducing a catheter.
For more information, please call 603-742-5252.
