A clinic for all of Sweden

Since 2015, Skandionkliniken in Uppsala has been the first clinic in the Nordic region to offer proton radiation for cancer and other tumor diseases. Today, we are the only clinic in Sweden that performs proton radiation and we receive patients from all over the country.

Broad expertise

Skandionkliniken has two treatment rooms, known as gantries, for proton radiation. We also have a computed tomography (CT) scanner that is used to monitor the treatment status and radiation doses.

The clinic employs many different professionals: oncologists, medical physicists, oncology nurses, technical staff, assistant nurses and administrative staff. We also have access to experts at all seven university hospitals.

Seven regions run the Skandionkliniken

Behind Skandionkliniken are the seven regions in Sweden that have university hospitals. Together they run the Municipal Association for Advanced Radiotherapy (KAS), which has two missions:

• to run Skandionkliniken, i.e. to create the conditions for optimal treatment with proton radiation, and to develop and evaluate the activities.
• run the Hotel von Kraemer where patients and relatives can stay during treatment.

Collaboration as a working model

Skandionklinikens operations are based on the principle of distributed competence. This means that treatments at the clinic are carried out in collaboration with the hospital to which the patient belongs. The hospital is medically responsible for the treatment.

The patient is examined and prepared at his or her local clinic. Treatment then takes place at Skandionkliniken and the patient is monitored and followed up in their own hospital.

Skandionkliniken and the university hospitals also hold joint video conferences, known as rounds. Experts from the university hospitals and Skandionkliniken jointly assess whether proton radiation or traditional radiation is most suitable for the patient. Skandionkliniken and the university hospitals also have joint systems for planning radiation doses and exchanging information.

The distributed expertise also means that staff from the university hospitals are assigned to Skandionkliniken on a rotating schedule. Every week, one doctor and two hospital physicists from one of the university hospitals come to participate in the proton beam treatments.