Varian to Highlight Software that Augments Quality Assurance Processes in Radiation Oncology at the 2014 American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Meeting

AUSTIN, Texas, July 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE:VAR) will showcase tools designed to augment essential quality assurance processes in radiation oncology at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).  During the meeting, taking place here from July 20-24, Varian will also highlight tools for knowledge sharing, as well as recent enhancements to the TrueBeam™ system for image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery.

Machine performance check (MPC), a new service tool for use with Varian's TrueBeam system, is among the tools that will be showcased.  A fully automated test sequence that acquires 40 images and completes 18 tests in about five minutes, MPC helps medical physicists determine that the TrueBeam system is operating within specified parameters prior to treatment. 

"The TrueBeam system incorporates several tightly integrated subsystems,  including the gantry, which rotates around the patient; the multileaf collimator, which shapes the treatment beam; the treatment couch, which is used to position the patient for treatment; and two imagers for fine-tuning tumor targeting and verifying the dose delivered," said Todd Holmes, product manager.  "MPC enables a user to quickly establish that each of these components is performing accurately, so that clinicians can deliver highly precise treatments like stereotactic radiosurgery with confidence.  It also conducts a constancy check of the treatment beam to verify that it is stable over time.  The test can be completed quickly, in a way that is easily integrated into daily clinical processes."

Varian will also showcase Qumulate™ QA, a cloud-based quality assurance (QA) data management and analysis tool.  A works-in-progress that is not yet available for sale, Qumulate is designed to allow medical physicists to maintain linear accelerator (linac) QA data through a simple and intuitive web interface.  Using this web-based tool, users will be able to create QA templates reflecting their own clinic-specific testing procedures, identify trends in a linac's historical test performance, and see how their own machine compares to the QA performance of other linacs.  All the data will be analyzed in the cloud. 

"Not only will Qumulate help alleviate the QA paperwork burden, it may also help standardize the QA process with the ultimate goal of delivering the highest quality of care to the patient," said Sukhveer Singh, vice president of Varian's Oncology Continuum Solutions group.  "We're excited to share this latest innovation designed to facilitate greater knowledge sharing among users."

Other knowledge-sharing tools to be exhibited include:

• RapidPlan™ knowledge-based treatment planning software, which enables clinicians to leverage knowledge and data from earlier treatment plans to quickly develop high-quality personalized plans for patients. 
• Velocity™ software for accessing and aggregating treatment and imaging data from diverse systems to show a comprehensive view of a patient's diagnostic history, regardless of where they were treated or what technology was used.  

"The ongoing development of these software products is part of an important initiative we launched last year, to focus on solutions that promote evidence-based care and help to enhance quality, consistency, and efficiency in clinical processes related to radiotherapy and radiosurgery," said Kolleen Kennedy, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business.  "We are pleased to share some of these tools, plus other refinements of our major cancer treatment delivery systems, with clinicians attending this year's AAPM meeting."

A significant number of the presentations scheduled for the scientific sessions at the AAPM meeting this year center on the use of Varian technology.  About 90 involve work done with the TrueBeam system and 140 cover aspects of Eclipse™ treatment planning.  Over 100 more cover topics like RapidArc^® radiotherapy, High Intensity mode, Calypso^® real-time tracking, Acuros^® dose calculation, the ARIA^® oncology information system, and Varian's HD120^® high-definition multileaf collimator.

"We're delighted to see this level of knowledge sharing about Varian technology going on at the 2014 AAPM meeting," Kennedy added.  "The level of activity helps bring us a step closer to our vision of a world without fear of cancer."

About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes, digital detectors, and image processing software and workstations for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies high-energy X-ray devices for cargo screening and non-destructive testing applications.  Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 6,500 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.

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FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Meryl Ginsberg, 650-424-6444 
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SOURCE Varian Medical Systems