New Updates: VirtualDose Pediatric Phantoms and Batch Utility
Virtual Phantoms, Inc. has just released two small but important updates to the VirtualDose system. For all users: We have added support for Newborn and 1 year old phantoms to VirtualDoseIR and VirtualDoseDX, based on the ICRP 143 pediatric models. This provides the full coverage of the pediatric population that was already available in VirtualDoseCT. For those with access to the VirtualDose Batch Utility: Version 2.1 is now available! The previous release significantly improved the function and error handling of our utility that takes input data in an excel sheet and processes it together at once (from a few to hundreds of cases or more at a time). This update provides an interactive data page which allows you to view and edit the input parameters case-by-case and exposure-by-exposure, make edits and corrections, add, duplicate, or delete individual cases, and recalculate the results. We’ve also improved how the system handles default assumptions for missing data. When Reference Point Distance and Source-to-Skin Distance are not explicitly provided, VirtualDoseIR now uses updated default assumptions that better reflect current clinical practice. Supplying these values directly is still best when you know them, but the new defaults give more accurate results when they aren’t available. Download the update now! (login...
Read MoreVirtualDose™ CT gets a modern refreshed data entry page
Virtual Phantoms has just published an update to its flagship module VirtualDoseCT to modernize and simplify the data entry for calculating patient dose from a CT exam, and clarify that the results are applicable to any CT scan. The key change is the option to directly input the value of CTDIvol for the scan, rather than relying on a combination of the normalized CTDIw, the mAs per rotation, and the pitch. When VirtualDose was first published, there were still CT machines in common use that did not display or store a value of CTDIvol, but may only show the mAs for the scan. The tools available at the time for estimating CT dose would rely on a standardized value of CTDIw per 100 mAs that was known for the different machines, so that was the approach that Virtual Phantoms took as well. In today’s environment, it is rare that CTDIvol would not be available to enter directly. Also, as modern machines use of tube current modulation has become standard practice, CTDI values have become more patient specific, and it has become harder to obtain standardized constant current CTDI values. Now when opening the VirtualDoseCT page, the default screen has a field for CTDIvol (in addition to the ones for kVp and beam collimation, plus the other factors necessary to describe the patient and the scan). From these, the patient dose can be displayed on the screen or downloaded in a PDF report. The original mode based on scanner model selection is maintained for compatibility and for instances where it still might be necessary to rely on standardized machine output values. Scanner-specific values will be added for new models as they become available, but they are not necessary for the calculation. Besides all that, the interface has been updated using an Angular programming infrastructure, which should make everything run faster and more smoothly across all web...
Read MoreFind Virtual Phantoms at AAPM 2025!
Virtual Phantoms CTO Peter Caracappa will be at the 2025 meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine — set up a demonstration or meet to talk about our new features. Email peter.caracappa@virtualphantoms.com / Call or text 518-288-8760 to set up a meeting. See you in Washington D.C.!
Read MoreNew Update to VirtualDoseIR Released
Virtual Phantoms is happy to announce a major update of the VirtualDoseIR module has been released for public use. Key new features: Rectangular fields — VirtualDoseIR now models rectangular exposure fields in addition to square ones. Additional cardinal directions — The system now natively supports projections originating on the anterior side of the patient body, plus cranial and caudal tilt angles Spin acquisition — in addition to regular fluoroscopic exposures, there is now an option to estimate the dose from 3D (CBCT) spin acquisitions that have become common on many modern machines. Specify reference point distance — users may now specify the distance from the source to the interventional reference point to override the default reference point position In addition there have been a number of internal improvements to improve the speed and accuracy of the calculations. Features are available today for use with the VirtualDoseIR API — look for updates to the web interface in the near future to take advantage of all new...
Read MoreVirtual Phantoms CEO Dr. George Xu presents keynote address to CIRMS meeting
On April 13, 2022, Prof. George Xu delivered a 45-minutes capstone talk entitled ” Radiotherapy Plan QA using Deep-CNN based Multi-OAR Auto segmentation and GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo Dose Check ” for the CIRMS annual conference. Professor Xu introduced the history of computational phantoms, the VirtualDose software (For tracking patient organ doses from CT and interventional radiology procedures), DeepViewer software (an AI-based automatic multi-organ segmentation tool for radiation therapy) and ArcherQA software (the fast Monte Carlo simulation software for radiation treatment based on GPU acceleration). CIRMS（Council on Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards）is the highest academic institution in the field of ionizing radiation measurements and standards in the United States. Its leaders are top experts from industry, academia and government. Through publication of “Needs” report, CIRMS sets national priority in research and development pertaining to ionizing radiation measurement and standardization covering nuclear energy, industrial irradiation, medicine, and nuclear security in the United States. Prof. Xu was elected the President (1999-2000) of the CIRMS, and was chosen to receive the Randall S. Caswell Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution in...
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