GREAT FALLS — Doctor Megan Sisk has dedicated her life to helping others. Sisk said, “Lung cancer is one of the deadliest cancers because it's diagnosed at late stage, especially in Montana.”
Sisk is always looking for new ways to help more people: “If we can diagnose it earlier, the prognosis is better. There's even a potential for cure.”
This is where the Ion robot comes into play.
Sisk said, “The goal of this robot is to biopsy smaller further-out lung nodules.”
The robot uses CAT-scan data to map out lungs, and provides GPS-like instructions so doctors can easily pilot the machine toward potentially cancerous nodules, allowing diagnosis to occur weeks or even years earlier than usual.
Sisk said, “It’s a fun time to be in medicine.”
Great Falls Hospital CEO Mark Robinson explains that investing in this machine will help Montanans as a whole.
Robinson said, “We are the third Ion robot to be in place in the state of Montana. There's one in Billings and there's one in Kalispell.”
Now, there is one in central Montana.
Robinson said, “Our duty as healthcare providers is to take as much healthcare as we can to people, and have these technologies available so that their drive time is less, their diagnosis is quicker, and their curative plan is that much faster as well.”
Robots like these are able to provide more hope to those in troubling times.
Robinson said, “That’s the big thing - catch the cancers earlier. And we have proven that worth on patient number one.”
Robinson advises anyone with questions about the robot to reach out to Great Falls Hospital to learn more.
