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Accuracy Cyberknife
"Improve the outcomes that matter most."
The Client
Accuracy develops, manufactures and sells radiotherapy systems for alternative cancer treatments for providing treatments that are shorter, safer, personalized and more effective.
The Cyberknife® M6™ Robotic Radiosurgery System is a non-invasive alternative to surgery for treating cancerous and non-cancerous tumors anywhere in the body: prostate, breast, liver, pancreas, and kidney.
This robotic radiosurgery system moves around the patient, tracking tumor location and body movement and treating tumors from multiple angles. The three-dimensional dexterity of the device allows it to conform treatment to a tumor's exact shape, avoiding damage to healthy surrounding tissue.
Challenge
Speck was charged with refining the Cyberknife's appearance while enhancing the overall user experience. The final product needed to be a calming force for clinicians and patients in a medical procedure fraught with stress. The ultimate goal was to simplify the mechanism down to a series of soft, organic, approachable forms while concealing cables and other previously exposed mechanisms.
Process
The design process meant a willingness to put aside typical expectations of medical devices in pursuit of personalized cancer care. The Speck team soon realized that the effect, look, feel, and even color of a medical device could dramatically affect a patient receiving radiation treatment.
Considering everything from enhancements to the room layout to creating a sense of safety and tranquility for cancer patients in a highly emotional state during treatment became paramount. When considering critical human details like what a patient was feeling at the time of treatment, seemingly small details such as the color of lighting and movement of the tool became critical to giving human-centric cancer care.
Ultimately Speck stepped away from the Cyberknife's clinical setting and approached the Cyberknife medical device as an architectural installation with an emphasis on a calming presence.
Outcome
The Cyberknife redesign conveys calm through the integration of colors rarely seen in hospitals or clinics. The use of gentle green lighting to cue robot movement means patients stay informed, without harsh red or white lights. Its sinuous lines are more akin to a piece of architecture or art to provide a more organic, soothing environment for patients facing their own mortality.
Clinicians already use the Cyberknife system in global radiation oncology programs; it offers expanded and individualized treatment options, aiding more patients than ever before and providing a more empathetic cancer care experience. Speck's panel and cable management designs allow for a new robot orientation and an increased base height that enables the robot to reach new parts of the body for treating breast cancer patients, which could previously not be done.
