
Varian showcased at AAPM 2007 a new "smart" radiotherapy treatment planning tool that will reportedly enable clinicians to significantly reduce the amount of time needed to create sophisticated treatment plans for advanced treatments like intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). The new Smart Segmentation automatic contouring feature, which is pending FDA 510(k) clearance, is the first fully automatic tool that uses intelligent software to identify and outline, within diagnostic images, organs and other structures to be irradiated or protected during treatment.