The interventional radiology department at Corewell Health Beaumont Troy Hospital has been equipped with a new, state-of-the-art laboratory, improving the team’s workflow as well as the patient experience.

“The new lab allows us to expand our IR services quite substantially, to bring more procedures to help physicians in various areas,” said Allen May, D.O., medical director for interventional radiology at Troy. “I don’t think you can get a better room than we have now. We’re really grateful we were able to acquire it because it’s really helping the services we provide, to safely perform procedures through minimally invasive techniques even better for our community.”

Dr. May’s department consists of six interventional radiologists and a team of nurses and technicians working out of two labs within the hospital. With technological advances, keeping the lab’s machines and equipment up to date is an ongoing challenge in the field.

“With medicine, it’s always changing, and unfortunately, the equipment is so expensive,” Dr. May said. “But with the newer room, we now have better imaging to more precisely do our procedures. It’s safer for the patient, too. If we can see something that might cause harm, we’re more precise. It allows us to perform more tasks that would help the patient.”

Among the additional procedures now possible in the lab are prostate embolization, 3D reconstruction, targeting tumors of the liver with focal radiation particles, and radiofrequency ablation to treat metastasis of the spine. The new lab also provides additional imaging that can help guide physicians in certain areas.

“Now I can see anatomical landmarks so much better, so I can be more precise in my placement of the needles and the rods,” Dr. May explained. “It shortens the procedure time, and we can be far more accurate in what we do, more precise. Because the imaging is much better, it allows us to do additional things than in the past we weren’t able to do.”