Ion beam therapy should be "democratized" through model-based patient selection, innovative technologies for better and faster treatment delivery, and substantial size and cost reduction. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) concept can be used to quantify the societal benefit.
@article{arxiv.2006.11893,
title = {The societal impact of ion beam therapy},
author = {Thomas R. Bortfeld and Matthew Fernandez de Viana and Susu Yan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.11893},
year = {2020}
}