COVINGTON, Ga. — The Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia's Covington location had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate its reopening and the new technology that is being introduced to the center. 

The main piece of technology that members of this office believe will make a huge difference is the linear accelerator, which will allow the office to take a big step forward in the treatment that they can bring to their patients. 

"The new linear accelerator is the new edition, and it's hard to over-emphasize how important it is because the technology in cancer treatment is changing so quickly," Dr. John Gargus, radiation oncologist, said. "This is cutting-edge technology for radiation therapy, most specifically the stereotactic highly-precise treatments that can be delivered over one or two treatments to a very targeted area, so it's really a big step forward for us in Newton County."

Gargus emphasized how helpful it will be for his patients to receive this type of treatment near their homes and not have to make the far trip to the Atlanta area.

"It's a big deal, and we love our patients out here, and they're all appreciative of the fact that they don't have to go into Atlanta and deal with the crazy traffic out there," he said. "It's very gratifying to practice here because of how grateful patients are to have this locally, and it's very satisfying, professionally, that we are able to provide it."

Katara Borrero, regional director of operations with Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, echoed similar sentiments as Gargus in what these new technologies bring to the Covington and Newton County area. 

"We've been here for a long time, and we wanted to update and get more state of the art equipment. So now we're offering hypofractionation through radiosurgery, so we're able to offer that high-dose radiation like our larger locations, which we were not able to before, but now we are, " she said. "They do not have to drive outside of their community, that is the best note. So many people think you have to go to Emory or out of town, or to Atlanta to receive state of the art treatment, you don't. You can do it in your community." 

Justin Buttner, oncology liaison for Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, believed getting the word out and letting people know this location has this type of advanced technology is of the utmost importance.

"Just to know that we're here, I can't tell you how many chamber members today that I spoke to that had no idea that our facility is located over here and the kind of technology that we have," he said. "I really just want people to know we're here and that we have the latest and greatest technology in their own backyard to treat the cancers that arise."

In hopes of building awareness around the new technology at this recently reopened facility, Buttner said the center has already planned involvement with many community events and will look to do more in the future.

"We have an open house coming up for existing referring physicians and possibly new physicians. We also have and will participate in the Fuzz Run; 2020 will be our third year participating there," he said. "We also have scheduled and plan to be involved with Relay For Life locally this year."