advantages PC3D

PC3D ®

Computer Treatment Planning

Software for Radiation Therapy

Advantages

ADVANTAGE : Immediate availability. PC3D® has FDA 510K number 510K953508. A fully configured PC3D® is maintained in our test suite and can be available for immediate turn-key delivery. All PC’s and peripherals are available in stock and we are able to assist you in collecting and installing your own beam data quickly and as efficiently as possible.
ADVANTAGE : Fast, reliable, hardware. Our PC3D® treatment planning system has the advantage of working on the very fastest, readily available PC based computers using industry standard peripherals. This is a distinct advantage over more expensive, complicated, difficult to repair or replace so-called “high end” workstations from the likes of Sun or Silicon Graphics, as offered by more expensive treatment planning computer systems. The advantage of using PC computers provides economical and extremely reliable computers and peripherals.
ADVANTAGE : Versatile operating system. The PC3D® has the advantage of an operating system that can be understood by all personnel. This offers the advantage of being able to run other readily available, reasonably priced PC based software. If you should so desire, it becomes easily possible to use word processors, graphics packages, data base system or any other of many standard PC based software packages.
ADVANTAGE : Always the very latest in technical excellence. We have the unique and special advantage of a “non-obsolescence guarantee”™ for the hardware. This guarantee provides an upgrade to the very latest computer as part of the annual service contract. In the computer technology field, any computer (even expensive “high end” computers) can be expected to be obsolete in a very short time. Computers are constantly getting faster and graphics capabilities are constantly increasing. Any computer from any vendor can almost be guaranteed to be obsolete in a few years. Our exclusive “non-obsolescence guarantee”™ is part of our annual service contract and provides that your “obsolete” PC3D® computer can be traded-in every two years on whatever will be the fastest possible processor then available.
ADVANTAGE : Fast, efficient, easy, cost effective. The PC3D® has the advantage of being a system which is exceptionally fast and efficient in producing treatment plans. The program flow is logical and easy to use and designed specifically in regards to the production of clinical treatments plans. The system is easy to learn and intuitive to use. The system has many features specifically designed and included to increase the over-all efficacy in producing accurate treatment plans very quickly and easily in the most cost-effective manner.
ADVANTAGE: The best, most accurate 3D dose calculation algorithms. The PC3D® uses algorithms specifically designed to accurately reproduce the dose distribution that would be present in the patient when exposed to the specified beam configuration. The algorithms emulate a multiple event Monte-Carlo calculation using an integration of the scatter from multiple sequential interactions originating from a pencil beam primary. Each interaction point includes the absorption coefficients for the various energies and materials present at the point of interaction. In the interests of making these Monte-Carlo like calculations reasonable fast, the assumption is made that all of the energy is absorbed after the third interaction. For ultimate accuracy, all calculations are simultaneously made for open fields of the same specified beam parameters. Then a ratio of the calculated irregular field that is actually being used is determined relative to that calculated corresponding open field. This calculated Irreg-to-open ratio is then applied to carefully measured open field data to reproduce the true dose distribution most accurately and verifiably.
ADVANTAGE : Flexible configuration. We have the advantage of being able to provide additional physician viewing consoles at each or any of many sites. The PC3D® layout design is most flexible and can be designed with multiple local or remote planning stations, data entry consoles, doctors’ review consoles, physicists’ data entry and review consoles, and even include interface networks to remote compensator milling stations and direct hot-wire block cutting hardware for the fabrication of custom compensators of shielding blocks.
ADVANTAGE : Automatically irregular field block cutting. We also have the advantage of being able to include our new Compute-Rx-EasyCut™ automatic computer controlled hot-wire block cutting system as part of the system. This provides direct connection to the PC3D® for immediate cutting of custom shielding blocks. This enables Styrofoam molding blocks to be cut directly from the data entered in the irregular field programs or from the Beam’s Eye View field shaping programs.
ADVANTAGE : Automatically IMRT compensator calculation and fabrication. We also have the advantage of being able to provide the ComputeRx-Comp® compensator measuring and fabrication system that directly interfaces with the planning system. The ComputeRx-Comp® uses lasers to accurately measure the patient’s surface contours which can then be used for the fabrication of IMRT (Intensity Modulation Radiation Therapy) filters. The ComputeRx-Comp® IMRT missing tissue compensator filters for modulating the intensity of the radiation therapy beam are exact and easily verifiable. This is an advantage for the many cases where you might not have a complete set of CT slices, yet recognize the desirability of providing the advantages of a compensator for your patients. The PC3D® can also directly make compensator filters for intensity modulation radiation therapy from a complete CT data set.
ADVANTAGE : Fully networkable. We have the advantage of being able to network multiple systems together. This may be a LAN “Local Area Network” where the various computers are hardwired together or over a WAN “Wide Area Network”. These networks can be configured to exchange information with CT scanners using their various proprietary image formats or using the DICOM standard formats for data interchange. Networking has the advantage of interconnecting various sites for data exchange, patient referrals, consultation or finished plan interchange. The use of a “WAN” enables these many capabilities even though the sites may be located many hundreds of miles from each other.
ADVANTAGE : Exceptional CT viewing console. The PC3D® has the distinct advantage of having built in CT viewing and image manipulation capabilities that rival any major companies’ CT viewing consoles. These capabilities are part of the PC3D® virtual simulator system and are able to be extended to remote consoles at any desired site such as in the MD’s office for their viewing of the CT information or the delineating of the tumor volumes and the detailed specification of irregular shaded fields.
ADVANTAGE: Complete 3D special features. Includes: Dose Volume Histograms, Beams Eye View, Rooms Eye View, surface rendered dose cloud, orthogonal reconstructions, virtual simulation, Auto-Track™ automatic contour tracking, automatic irregular field tumor tracking, realignment for CT scanner tilt, merge of CT and MRI, magnified view for hand drawing, CT window and level presets and manual control, density frequency histogram for Hounsfield to density calibration, mouse and mnemonic control of all parameters and Digitally Reconstructed Radiographs ... complete capability not available in other 3D systems.
ADVANTAGE: Versatile weighting, prescribing and normalization. The PC3D® has the advantage of including the capability of weighting, prescribing and normalizing in more combinations than any other system in the world. This includes weighting to calibration dose, isocenter, user point, or monitor units. The weighting can be specified on a per time basis or you can specify the number of applications. The prescription can be specified to a percent, to a raw Isodose Line Value or to any point or the isocenter. The percent can be further defined by the normalization. The normalization can be specified to deliver 100% to any isodose line, 100% to the matrix maximum, 100% to any user point or 100% to the isocenter. Further, if the isocenter point is located under a block or on the edge of a block, the calculations are dose correctly for the field as if the block were not there.
ADVANTAGE: Composite planning. Only the PC3D® has the unique and very special advantage of being able to calculate the cGy dose distribution directly from a composite plan where up to 9 different phases of the plan may be treated with completely different prescriptions. For example: the PC3D® can show the final dose distribution where there is a combination of three plans, the first being a four field box treated as SSD fields 23 time at 180 cGy to 95% of matrix maximum with the beams weighted 100:100:50:50 applied calibration dose, followed by a second phase of 10 treatment delivered via two arcs prescribed to give 200 cGy to the isocenter with beams weighted equally 1:1 at the isocenter, followed with an electron boost of 5 treatments prescribing 200 cGy to 90 percent of the electron beam’s central axis Dmax. No other system can show the results of three such completely different phases, each with a different weighting, prescribing and normalizing.
ADVANTAGE: Clear presentation of output for inclusion in patients charts. The paper output that is intended for inclusion in the patients treatment records is specifically designed to be clear and complete. The graphical isodose line presentation is scaled to fit neatly on the paper size to fit the patients records. The prescription isodose line and the prescription are clearly highlighted in red. The “hotspot” is shown and clearly identified by dose and percentage. All plan and prescription parameters are clearly presented and all beam parameters are listed along with the Monitor Units used to produce the plan.
ADVANTAGE : Handles multi-leaf interfacing. PC3D® has a special advantage of being able to directly export multi-leaf data files to the Varian “Shaper” and to import “Shaper” files for the calculation of irregular fields, if you have any Varian multi-leaf collimator therapy machines. Saves time and effort and makes the procedure faster and less error prone.
ADVANTAGE: Ability to include graphical output in with textual reports. This special advantage allows you to include graphical output in follow-up letters to referring physicians or with the treatment summaries. The screens presented during the planning procedure can be saved as .PCX files for inclusion in Microsoft WORD or other word processors capable of including .PCX files. This advantage makes an impressive presentation for communicating with referring physicians and makes an easily understood graphical record for inclusion in patients records.
ADVANTAGE: Magnified views Only the PC3D® has the advantage of providing a greatly magnified view for the drawing of tumors or special structures. This special view enlarges the CT image to a magnified image showing the pixels with an overlaid “gun-sight cross wire” to enable the very precise delineation of objects in the view. This magnified view include the ability to adjust the window and level of the CT presentation in the magnified view window to assist in the precise determination of any tumor extensions even to the pixel level.
ADVANTAGE: Understandable homiculous as a position reference icon. The PC3D’s positioning icon has been specifically designed to overcome the limitations of other systems’ positioning icons. This PC3D® “Little Ralph”™ icon has a somewhat human like appearance with stylized head and feet on a rectangular cube that is correctly oriented and labeled with RALP where “R” is for right, “A” for anterior, “L” for left, and “P” for posterior. Further this positioning icon can be assigned an orientation which represents the patient even if the patient is prone or supine or if turned end-for-end, head to foot and/or upside-down.
ADVANTAGE : Continuing education. We have the advantage of being able to offer continuing education credits to your personnel. We can provide 24 hours of continuing education credit for our complete training program in the use of the PC3D® in three-D treatment planning and can provide 8 hours of continuing education credit on the use and fabrication of compensators using the ComputeRx-Comp®. These courses are normally given during the installation of a new system, but are also available by pre-arrangement at any time.
ADVANTAGE : Complete department planning system. The PC3D® has the advantage of being a complete department treatment planning system by including all of the necessary treatment planning capabilities for a complete radiation therapy department. Unlike some systems which simply provide external beam planning, the PC3D® also includes irregular field calculation routines, brachytherapy dosimetry programs, and even simple hand calculation modules as well.
ADVANTAGE: Unmatched interconnectivity. Only the PC3D® provides complete capabilities in radiation therapy by including interconnections to our exclusive compensator planning, IMRT filter fabrication, hot-wire cutter controllers and virtual simulation and CT remote viewing console capabilities. This advantage enables a complete departmental therapy functionality not available in any other systems ... at any price.
ADVANTAGE : Reasonable price. We also offer the advantage of being able to save you the expense of a high priced Sun or Silicon Graphics type workstation based planning system with their high priced salesmen and highly paid CEO’s. Some people might not consider that to be important, but during times of decreasing reimbursements, our price advantage might be a significant consideration, especially if you add that to the other advantages the PC3D® has over any other system.
ADVANTAGE : Highly qualified development and support personnel. We have dedicated programmers and board certified therapy physicists whose primary interest is to be able to provide the very best in radiation therapy software and support. The PC3D® system’s presentations, capabilities and functionality are driven by suggestions from our users as well as by our own extensive clinical understanding of the radiation therapy. We enjoy programming and the pride of being able to provide the very finest programs for use in radiation therapy. We are very good at what we do; unfortunately we’re not very good salesmen.
ADVANTAGE : A dedication to your specific needs. We all know that there is only one most important reason for you to buy a three-D treatment planning system and Medicalibration has the unique advantage of being the one and only company best suited to satisfy that one reason. That one special reason will be specific and unique to you and your needs. At Medicalibration you and your needs, whatever they might be, are most important to us ... and that is the ultimate advantage to you !

We have listed just a few of the many exclusive advantages of Medicalibration’s PC3D®. We hope you can recognize and take advantages of them for yourself by acquiring a PC3D® system for your facility. We hope to include you as one of our many loyal and satisfied users. We are confident that we can do the best for you. If you are sincerely interested in acquiring the best possible, most reasonably priced 3D planning system in the world, we would be happy to arrange a demonstration. We would be proud to show you the system in detail and discuss the various advantages of the PC3D®. We can design a system that will best suit the specific needs of your organization. Please just let us know how we can be of the greatest service to you.

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president, MEDICALIBRATION

Shaper is a trademarks of Varian

WORD is a trademark of Microsoft

PC3D, Compute-Rx-Plan, ComputeRx-Comp, Easy-Cut, Auto-Track and Little-Ralph are all trademarks of Medicalibration