The Nova Scotia government says the Halifax Infirmary has opened a new hybrid operating room with advanced diagnostic imaging equipment — the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada.
In a Tuesday morning release, the province said the new equipment will allow patients in cardiac or vascular surgery to undergo diagnostic tests in the room if complications arise, as opposed to having to be moved to where the diagnostic equipment is located.
This will be safer for patients at the QEII site, the province said.
The QEII Foundation fundraised $4 million for the purchase of the equipment. Of that, $1 million was donated by a Truro man who the room was named after — now bearing the name Stewart E. Allen Hybrid Operating Room.
The room officially opened in late October and had its first patient.
Colton LeBlanc, Minister responsible for the QEII New Generation project, said in the release the new infrastructure “will greatly improve the delivery of healthcare services.”
Cardiac and vascular surgeon at the Halifax Infirmary, Dr. Christine Herman, said in the release it’s “really exciting to see so many Nova Scotians come together and make donations to the QEII Foundation to make the hybrid OR possible.
“I know that many Nova Scotians are going to benefit from this,” Herman said.
“The technology in the hybrid OR is so much more advanced — it can give us more granular pictures and show us better images of what we’re doing.”