Collaborative virtual simulation environment for radiotherapy treatment planning

The simulation of Radiotherapy Treatment Planning (RTP) is a normal procedu re in oncology clinics carried out on a Simulator machine. The Virtual Simu lation of RTP replaces the real Simulator machine with a virtual one by usi ng the CT data sets of a patient instead of the real patient. In this paper , we present a collaborative virtual simulation environment of RTP, named E U-VIRTUOSO, which is based on volume rendering and telecommunication techni ques. The RTP procedure is visualized on a virtual patient, which is created by u sing the CT data of the patient. Different volume rendering and volume inte raction techniques, such as DRR, MIP, gradient surface, and iso-surface, su pply physicians with high quality rendering images to simulate the real wor king environment of the Simulator machine. In the collaborative environment , physicians distributed at different locations can work together via netwo rk to plan the treatment or to validate the treatment plan on-line by a col laborative application sharing approach. Both concepts virtualised planning and collaborative planning improve the efficiency and accuracy of a radiot herapy treatment while reducing the effort for an individual patient.