Varian's "smart" imaging tool:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Varian Medical Systems has received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Smart Segmentation technology, a radiotherapy treatment planning tool. It is designed to enable clinicians to reduce the amount of time needed to plan treatments including intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), brachytherapy, and proton therapy. The Palo Alto, California firm claims that the new Smart Segmentation feature, which has been added to Varian's Eclipse treatment planning product, is the world's first fully automatic tool that uses intelligent software to identify organs and other structures within diagnostic images of the thorax and male pelvis. The Smart Segmentation tool can automatically identify all of the structures of interest in less than 45 seconds. Previously, structures requiring radiotherapy or protection from radiotherapy had to be identified manually.