Gunilla Bentel, R.N., R.T.T., was a renowned author and clinician at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina. Gunilla was the Chief Dosimetrist and Clinical Associate in the Department of Radiation Oncology/Physics Division. Gunilla was a true pioneer in the use of immobilization devices for external beam radiation therapy patients. Ms. Bentel spent several decades refining the tools that best served the patient and the patient’s treatment plan. It seems everyone I ever met in the field either knew Gunilla Bentel, or knew of her. Her work was respected at every leading medical center around the world. One book that summarizes her lectures and publications on this topic is, “Patient Positioning and Immobilization in Radiation Oncology.” Smithers Medical Products, Inc. has donated thousands of copies of this publication to hospitals, medical centers, and teaching institutions across the United States. That’s how valuable we see her work in this important area of oncology. DUMC works closely with the VA medical center in Durham. When it became apparent that the VA couldn’t afford our products due to budget constraints, we would donate forms, foams and special sheeting to the VA.
We offer all VA medical centers a lifetime 20% discount on all of our products. If a VAMC ever calls and wants to use our products but cannot afford them, I send them free of charge. It’s one of my ways of supporting the men and women who have proudly served for all of us, granting us the freedoms and liberties we enjoy today.
I first began working with Gunilla Bentel back in 1985. As a representative of Smithers Medical Products, Inc., my goal was to see what products worked and what products didn’t work for Gunilla, and then make the type of immobilization she needed for her different patients. Smithers Medical Products, Inc. is the inventor of the Alpha Cradle® brand immobilization and repositioning forms. Gunilla saw that these customized anatomical forms not only immobilized the patient in the needed set-up position, but they also served to accurately reposition the patient throughout their treatment period. Most immobilization devices do not serve as repositioning devices, merely positioning devices.
Over the years, I developed many products for Ms. Bentel. Several of them serve as our leading patented products to this day. It was indeed an honor and a privilege to have worked with Gunilla as she pushed me to strive for excellence in the products I designed for the cancer patient. It became a personal goal for me to not only make our products functional, but to make them the most comfortable devices in the field for the cancer patient. Cancer patients have enough to struggle with. Being in an uncomfortable, or dirty, reused device shouldn’t be another thing to worry about. Our customized anatomical devices are the most comfortable devices found anywhere in the world.
My favorite quote from Gunilla was one she made at an ASTRO annual meeting. There was a small gathering at our booth and an attendee was looking over our products. As this person began asking questions, Gunilla walked up, and point blank asked if they used Alpha Cradles at their facility. When the person replied no, Gunilla instantly replied, “Then you’re killing your patients.” She went on to explain all the features for the patient, treatment plan and staff by using Alpha Cradles. The attendee soon became one of my best customers. Gunilla was my highest advocate over the years and did far more for the promotion of Alpha Cradle brand products than I ever could have achieved on my own. Gunilla entered all of our writing contests and wrote many papers on our Alpha Cradle brand products. In the last year of her life, she encouraged me to use anything and everything she had ever done for SMP to promote Alpha Cradles. This section of the website offers you the articles that Gunilla Bentel submitted to our writing contests over the years. Her papers always carried the highest standards in the medical profession.
It is 2021, and we still offer free copies of her patient positioning book to RT students through our Student Education Program. Together with sample Alpha Cradle forms, students are able to have hands-on experience with the best repositioning tool still used anywhere in the world. Our extended forms and the Bravelle were all products exclusively designed for Gunilla Bentel’s patients, and patented by SMP. Today, they are available to everyone in the field of oncology. Below is a selection of papers that Gunilla Bentel submitted to SMP’s writing contests over the years.