“What's equally impressive about Radformation is their culture of making sure they keep in touch with customers. Their customer service is equal to the best I've ever experienced anywhere, work-related and not.”
Michael Beach, a Medical Physicist at the Carpenter Cancer Center in Gallatin, Tennessee, is no stranger to the challenges of running a busy clinic. His team of 17—including two radiation oncologists, four radiation therapists, two dosimetrists, and four nurses—works tirelessly to treat 30 to 40 patients a day at their single TrueBeam site. But thanks to the transformative tools from Radformation, Michael has found a way to make their processes smoother, faster, and more effective, all while maintaining a high standard of patient care.
Michael’s first encounter with Radformation was, as he puts it, “a little coaxing from my wife.” At the time, she was a clinical dosimetrist, and she encouraged him to try ClearCheck. “I was made a believer the first time I used it,” Michael recalls. “I was stupefied by how efficient it made the iterative evaluation of VMAT planning. It was such a game-changer that I couldn’t believe we’d ever done it any other way.”
That initial experience opened the door to a suite of tools that have fundamentally changed the way Michael’s clinic operates. Two products, ClearCheck and EZFluence, stand out as having the most immediate impact. “ClearCheck and EZFluence were complete game changers in my clinic,” he explains. “We went from producing good, manually created field-in-field or compensator plans to excellent plans in a fraction of the time. ClearCheck alone saves countless hours of time each week due to the iterative nature of evaluating and re-crunching plans. It would be impossible for our facility to produce the quality and quantity of plans we do in the course of a normal workday using previous planning processes.”
For Michael, these tools have done more than just save time—they’ve reshaped his day-to-day responsibilities as a physicist. “They make keeping up with ever-growing and more in-depth planning protocols so much easier,” he shares. “Specifically, having ClearCheck has allowed me to automate plan evaluations, so it takes far less time to second-check plans thoroughly. That leaves me with more time to address the ever-multiplying responsibilities I know all medical physicists experience in their clinics.”
Michael has also seen a big impact from Radformation’s AutoContour, which helps streamline workflows even further. “AutoContour alone saves us countless man-hours each week,” he shares. “Radformation has continued to impress me with their dedication—not just to improving their existing applications but to researching and offering new, excellent solutions.”
It’s clear that Michael values Radformation’s dedication to its customers. Beyond the tools themselves, Michael shares his appreciation for Radformation’s culture. “What’s equally impressive about Radformation is their culture of making sure they keep in touch with customers on a personal level,” he explains. He also emphasizes the company’s unique approach to support and innovation, “Their customer service is equal to the best I’ve ever experienced anywhere, work-related or not. I’ve had frustrations working with other vendors that make the customer feel like it’s a privilege to use their products. Radformation has never made me feel that way.”
The Carpenter Cancer Center’s story is one of teamwork, innovation, and a dedication to elevating patient care. Michael’s journey with Radformation shows how the right tools utilized in the right way can transform the way a clinic operates—and the lives of the patients it serves.
When he’s not in the clinic, Michael enjoys spending time with his family, cooking (Mexican cuisine is one of his favorites), vacationing, and watching NASCAR.
